A timeline of the allegations against Ellen DeGeneres and her producers

“She is the kindest, most generous, most loving, loyal, trustworthy person I have ever known. She’s a very special human being. Some of it sometimes rubs off on me,” de Rossi told PEOPLE in 2021. “I haven’t spoken with @TheEllenShow and can only speak from my own experience,” Kutcher tweeted in early August. “She & her team have only treated me & my team w/ respect & kindness. She never pandered to celebrity which I always saw as a refreshing honesty. When things aren’t right she handles it and fixes.” The host revealed that she was backstage getting ready for her talk show when she received news of her positive test. And in response to a tweet by a fan about DeGeneres’ show potentially getting canceled, executive producer Andy Lassner said, “Nobody is going off the air.” The host referenced the ongoing investigation by WarnerMedia, and apologized at the beginning and end of the letter to anyone who was not treated with fairness and respect.

July 16: Staffers blast Ellen show for ‘toxic work environment’

The Hollywood Reporter states the 63-year-old sat down with her staff to inform them of the news on May 11, and will discuss her decision further in a chat with Oprah Winfrey on May 13. Then in June, DeGeneres vowed to do better after critics felt her statement about Black Lives Matter was vague and ineffective. Following Leman’s termination from the show on August 17, 2020, his attorney said the producer “is devastated by being scapegoated and is not yet ready to comment.” Leman and Norman have denied the allegations against them, while Glavin has not publicly addressed them. “I’m a multi-layered person, and I try to be the best person I can be and I try to learn from my mistakes,” the host said.

December 1, 2004: A Life-Changing Confession

When they did finally hear back from higher-ups, it was only to communicate a 60 percent pay cut. The ongoing saga of the Ellen DeGeneres controversy surrounding The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been one of the biggest entertainment stories of the year. Rumors about her exploded into major exposés and led to some serious negative press for the show, plus the departure of some high-level producers. Here’s a complete breakdown of the controversy’s timeline and what’s happening now. After photographs of DeGeneres enjoying a Dallas Cowboys game with former President George W. Bush sparked a social-media controversy nine months later, she doubled down on her impulse to see the personal as universal.

1. “After Portia said her vows, Ellen turned to the crowd and said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s what I was going to say!’ Then, they went on with the vows, and Ellen started crying, and they promised to be with each other forever,” an eyewitness told CBS News.
2. The executive does not report to the show’s leadership, providing anonymity to workers and a dedicated advocate.
3. But she proved to be a hit out of the box – winning over skeptical middle Americans with her happy feet and relentless self-deprecation.
4. Media to the deadly threat to queers in Russia and its occupied territories, LGBTQ people are engaged in a tug of war on a tectonic scale, struggling ceaselessly just to keep our footing.

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DeGeneres releases a statement saying she has tested positive for Covid-19 but tells fans she is “feeling fine”. DeGeneres, again, made the unexpected move of addressing the video, explaining that despite their differences the two are friends. She ended her monologue that day with “When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean only the people who think the same way that you do.”

January 16, 2005: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi confirm romance with first public appearance

Days after the announcement of the internal investigation, Ellen herself issued a memo to staffers, which was obtained by several media outlets, including People. Such a claim presumes that she owes us, or speaks for us, and that impossible burden — one she has faced since she came out on “Ellen” — is part of what landed her in this mess in the first place. No, it’s time that passed, politics that shifted, history itself that unfurled, with DeGeneres, for good and for ill, standing astride the chasm. From her knowing appearance as “a lightning rod of sexual controversy” on “The Larry Sanders Show” in 1996 to that Oscars selfie she took, as host, in 2014, DeGeneres’ trajectory mirrored that of the culture. One episode saw the talk show host make fun of several of the accusations made by ex-staffers who claimed senior producers mistreated other workers.

Others noted that the death hoax came after a turbulent past few months for DeGeneres. Less than two weeks following BuzzFeed’s explosive report, WarnerMedia announced an investigation into the show, according to Variety. Further information was not made available at the time, since it was an internal investigation. Following the allegations, the Hollywood Reporter stated executive producers Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and Jonathan Norman have left the daytime show. ‘Our executive producers and Telepictures are committed to taking care of our staff and crew and have made decisions first and foremost with them in mind,’ the spokesperson commented. TV executives sent a memo to Ellen staffers announcing that they have engaged WarnerMedia’s employee relations group and a third-party firm, according to Variety.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s main stage crew, consisting of at least 30 employees claimed thet they had received ‘no written communication’ about various issues including pay and working hours. Sources added to the Mail Online that DeGeneres’ ratings have ‘been truly appalling’ since allegations emerged over a ‘toxic workplace’ behind the scenes. ‘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,’ she told the publication.

The Dutch beauty vlogger first visited “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in January to discuss her experience as a transgender woman after coming out earlier that month. With accusations of unkind or inconsiderate behavior swirling around the talk-show host, it can be hard to keep track of all the controversy. She interviews ellen degeneres timeline Kevin Hart about his decision to pull out as host of the Oscars amid controversy over homophobic tweets he posted almost a decade before. The host broke the news in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter and said she had made the decision because the programme was “just not a challenge any more”.

The actor, who currently stars on the CBS sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola, appeared as the resident DJ on the daytime show from 2003 to 2013, before he was replaced by Stephen “tWitch” Boss. The 52-year old explained that while he was “grateful for the opportunity” to be on the show, he does not condone the “toxicity of the environment” and hopes the show will make a change. However, former Ellen show DJ Tony Okungbowa said that he did experience a toxic https://turbo-tax.org/ environment when he was working on the show, and addressed his experience on Instagram. “It’s not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us,” they added. “For the record, the day-to-day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.”

With rumors and complaints about DeGeneres already swirling online, BuzzFeed News published two reports in July that indicated the host and her show’s top producers had a lot of work to do. The next month, Ellen crew members alleged that producers left them high and dry during the pandemic and that they were told nothing “about the status of their working hours, pay, or inquiries about their mental and physical health from producers for over a month,” according to a Variety report. The article also said crew members were later told they’d get major pay reductions, and their frustrations only increased when they heard the show hired a non-union company to help DeGeneres tape the show from her home. In addition to Boss’ promotion, Variety was first to report news of Galvin, Leman and Norman’s removal from the show. Executive producers Andy Lassner, Mary Connelly, and Derek Westervelt, who have all been with the show since it premiered in 2003, will continue on, Variety reported.