Ellen DeGeneres surfaced in Montecito on Friday with her wife Portia de Rossi – a week after announcing she is ‘done’ with showbiz once her Netflix special drops.
The 66-year-old comedian is in the midst of her farewell tour Ellen’s Last Stand… Up, the final shows of which will be filmed for the streaming service.
She last toured in 2018, four years before her daytime talk show ended amid a blizzard of allegations about its ‘toxic’ work environment.
This week she returned home to California in between road gigs to soak up the sun with Portia, whom she has been with for 20 years.
Portia and Ellen could be spotted joining their friends at an alfresco table at a local deli, catching a bit of shade under the umbrellas.
Ellen clove to her usual style, wearing a flowing short-sleeved button-down shirt with a baseball cap and shielding her eyes from the rays with a large pair of shades.
Meanwhile Portia draped her willowy frame in a fitted black t-shirt, which she tucked into her green trousers to emphasize her trim waistline.
Ellen was enjoying her last off-day between shows – she played two dates in Dallas last weekend and will take the stage Saturday at The Masonic in San Francisco.
Onstage in Santa Rosa this month, she discussed her exit from the spotlight and joked that she will next be canceled for being ‘old, gay and mean’, as per SFGate.
When questioned if she might return to fame sometime in the future, she firmly shut down the possibility.
‘This is the last time you’re going to see me. After my Netflix special, I’m done,’ Ellen said of her upcoming one-hour show taping this fall.
‘Let me catch you up on what’s been going on with me since you last saw me,’ Ellen told the audience.
‘I got chickens. Oh yeah, and I got kicked out of show business for being mean.’
DeGeneres added: ‘I used to say, “I don’t care what people say about me.” Now I realize I said that during the height of my popularity.’
The 34-time Emmy winner noted how the first time she was ‘kicked out of show business’ it was for coming out as a lesbian in 1997.
‘Next time, I’ll be kicked out for being old. Old, gay and mean, the triple crown,’ Ellen – who said her intention was never to hurt anyone – wisecracked.
‘I can be demanding and impatient and tough. I am a strong woman. I am many things, but I am not mean.’
DeGeneres famously voiced the forgetful fish Dory in Pixar films Finding Nemo (2003) and Finding Dory (2016) as well as the DVD special feature Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau (2003) – and one fan begged her for another.
‘No,’ the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient dismissed. ‘I’m going bye-bye, remember?’
DeGeneres’ scandal was sparked by a single tweet penned by comedian Kevin T. Porter in March 2020 asking people for the ‘most insane stories you’ve heard about Ellen being mean,’ which amassed 2,600 replies.
Four months later, BuzzFeed News published an exposé featuring one current and 10 former employees of the Louisiana-born funnywoman’s former self-titled daytime talk show alleging racism, workplace bullying, and sexual harassment.
By August 2020, WarnerMedia had launched an internal investigation, Ellen had issued a formal apology to her 255 employees, and executive producers Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman, and Jonathan Norman were all fired from the show.
DeGeneres – who also apologized to fans on air – broadcast her final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on May 26, 2022 after 19 seasons.
She later branded it a ‘coordinated misogynistic’ attack on her and she has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since the talk show’s finale aired on May 26, 2022.
Earlier this week Ellen chose not to address her fans before quietly canceling four scheduled shows in Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago on her 32-date comeback tour.
The comedian’s cancellations came hours after SF Gate homepage editor Gabe Lehman published his detailed review of her show at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, CA.
‘Unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel your event,’ Ticketmaster informed customers on Wednesday.
‘You don’t need to do a thing. We’ll issue a refund to the original method of payment used at time of purchase, as soon as funds are received from the Event Organizer.
‘It should appear on your account within 14-21 days. Please Note: If the tickets were transferred to you, the refund will go to the fan who originally purchased the tickets from Ticketmaster.’
Ellen is next scheduled to perform on Monday at the Paramount Theatre in Denver, CO.
Her comedy special is coming out later this year. It will be her second Netflix special, following 2018’s Relatable.
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Source: USA Today
