Ellen Degeneres denied that the allegations of a toxic workplace environment led to her ending her talk show and instead blamed the climate of hatred under former President Donald Trump.
Degeneres made the comments during an interview Thursday with host Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today.”
Guthrie asked if she had trouble making the decision to end her show and Degeneres said she had first thought of ending the show in 2018 because of the hatred during the Trump administration.
“First of all I had been struggling with it for a while. I really did think I was gonna stop season 16, because, it was, if you can remember there was a different president, and it was a different time, and there was a lot of hatred and anger, and stuff,” Degeneres said.
“And then my brother was like, ‘You bring so much joy to people. If you stop, then all that darkness wins. You’re the light, like, stay and help people be kinder and be more compassionate,'” she continued.
Degeneres completely denied that the accusations of a toxic workplace led to her ending the show and said that instead the attacks encouraged her to stay longer than she wanted to stay.
She also said that the campaign against her and her show appeared to be “orchestrated,” and cited comments from her celebrity guests as evidence that the allegations were not true.
“You know, for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment — when all I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place it is,” Degeneres said.
She went on to say that she was a victim of clickbait headline writers who thought it was too perfect to cast her as a villain after she took on the motto, “be kind.”
Guthrie asked her what she would have made her motto if she could go back and change it.
“Go f*** yourselves,” Degeneres responded, halfway joking.
Here’s the entire interview with Degeneres and Guthrie:
Ellen Degeneres Explains Why She’s Ending Her Show
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