Ellen DeGeneres Admits She 'Hated' How Her Talk Show Ended After 'Toxic' Workplace Allegations

Former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has opened up about her departure from the show business.

She claimed she was pushed out of it all because she was "mean" and "toxic," saying this humorously during a comedy live show earlier in the week.

According to the comedian, all the hate took an emotional toll on her, but she was happy to return to doing something she loved.

Following her departure from being a talk show host, DeGeneres seems to have returned to her stand-up comedy roots.

In a new stand-up show coming to Netflix, she reflected on how she was kicked out of showbiz two years ago following accusations from ex-staff that she was "mean" and that her famed talk show, "Ellen DeGeneres Show," was a toxic place to work.

"What else can I tell you? Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business. There's no mean people in show business," DeGeneres told her listeners, per TMZ.

She continued, expressing that the "hate" directed towards her went on for "a long time," and she frequently made an effort to avoid reading negative headlines about herself.

"The hate went on for a long time and I would try to avoid looking at the news. The 'be kind' girl wasn't kind. That was the headline," The comedienne said.

DeGeneres reflected further: "I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps ... Would a mean person dance up steps? Had I ended my show by saying, 'Go f--k yourself,' people would've been pleasantly surprised."

It was not all jokes during the conversation; DeGeneres got candid at some point, revealing that being at the center of such a drama took a heavy toll on her ego and self-esteem.

She said, "Honestly, I'm making jokes about what happened to me, but it was devastating, really."

DeGeneres also shared that it did not sit well with her to see her show, which she had hosted for nearly two decades, come to an end amid controversy.

The comedian added, "I just hated the way the show ended. I love that show so much and I just hated that the last time people would see me is that way."

Not only was DeGeneres affected by the criticisms, but her wife, Portia de Rossi, also bore the brunt of it, although the comedian chose not to discuss it in detail.

Speaking further about that phase of her life,  DeGeneres claimed to be happy that she had moved past that point, adding that she was grateful to be back to doing something she loved.

In July 2020, nearly a dozen ex-employees of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" came forward anonymously to slam the former talk show for allegedly having a toxic workplace.

Despite the accusations from her ex-employees, one former employee chose to blame the executive producers at the time, claiming they were at fault and not DeGeneres.

"People focus on rumors about how Ellen is mean and everything like that, but that's not the problem," the ex-staff said, per E! News. "The issue is these three executive producers running the show who are in charge of all these people [and] who make the culture and are putting out this feeling of bullying and being mean."

Following the claims,  the show parted ways with executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman, and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman. DeGeneres herself also issued apologies, both as a public statement during the show and in an email and video to her workers.

Just before the 19th season of her show, DeGeneres announced that it would be the last, saying at the time that she wanted to try out other challenges.

"When you're a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged — and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it's just not a challenge anymore," the comedian told the Hollywood Reporter.

The decision seemed to be a long time coming, as she had once revealed during a 2018 New York Times profile that her wife had encouraged her to move on from the show.

No longer having the show on her schedule, DeGeneres has since tried her hand at other ventures, including opening a gorilla campus in Rwanda.