I moved to the UK because of Donald Trump

US TV star Ellen DeGeneres has made her first public look since transferring to the UK, saying she determined to settle in England the day after Donald Trump was re-elected US president.

The comic and host advised a crowd in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, that life “is simply higher” within the UK.

Ellen stated she and spouse Portia de Rossi have been contemplating getting married once more in England after some strikes within the US to reverse the appropriate to homosexual marriage, and that America can nonetheless be “scary for individuals to be who they’re”.

She additionally addressed allegations of a poisonous office that led to the tip of her long-running chat present in 2022, admitting she might be “very blunt”, however dismissed the tales as “clickbait”.

Ellen was one of many greatest names on US TV for 30 years, because of her daytime chat present, in addition to for her self-titled Nineties sitcom, for internet hosting the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys, and for voicing Dory in Discovering Nemo.

After her discuss present was cancelled, she went on a “remaining stand-up tour” within the US in 2024 then purchased a home within the Cotswolds, a historic and picturesque space primarily spanning elements of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

On Sunday on the Everyman theatre in close by Cheltenham, she was in dialog with broadcaster Richard Bacon, who requested whether or not experiences that she moved due to Donald Trump have been right. “Sure,” she replied.

The 67-year-old stated she and De Rossi had initially deliberate to spend three or 4 months a yr within the UK and purchased what they thought could be “a part-time home”.

“We obtained right here the day earlier than the election and woke as much as a lot of texts from our buddies with crying emojis, and I used to be like, ‘He obtained in’,” she stated. “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying right here’.”

Ellen has been giving glimpses of her new rural life on social media, in movies displaying her livestock together with sheep – though they’ve now been offered after they saved escaping.

“It is completely stunning,” she stated. “We’re simply not used to seeing this type of magnificence. The villages and the cities and the structure – the whole lot you see is charming and it is only a easier lifestyle.

“It is clear. All the pieces right here is simply higher – the way in which animals are handled, individuals are well mannered. I simply adore it right here.

“We moved right here in November, which was not the perfect time, however I noticed snow for the primary time in my life. We adore it right here. Portia flew her horses right here, and I’ve chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks.”

On her final tour, she joked that she had been “kicked out of present enterprise twice” – the primary time being when she got here out as homosexual in 1997.

That successfully led to the tip of her sitcom after advertisers pulled out and the community stopped selling it, she advised the Cheltenham crowd on Sunday.

Bacon requested whether or not her visibility had inspired different individuals to return out. “I might say no,” she replied. “I imagined lots of people popping out like meerkats poking out of a gap and going again in once more. ‘How’s she doing? OK, no, no.'”

However it’s “a very arduous resolution” that does not go well with everybody, she continued, and stated issues are higher as we speak “in some methods” however not others.

“If it was [better], all these different individuals which can be actors and actresses that I do know they’re homosexual, they’d be out, however they don’t seem to be, as a result of it is nonetheless an issue. Persons are nonetheless scared.”

Ellen additionally referenced a recent move by the Southern Baptist Convention to endorse the reversal of a Supreme Courtroom case permitting same-sex marriage. Not less than 9 state legislatures have launched payments to do the identical.

“The Baptist Church in America is attempting to reverse homosexual marriage,” she stated. “They’re attempting to actually cease it from occurring sooner or later and probably reverse it. Portia and I are already trying into it, and in the event that they try this, we’ll get married right here.”

Later, in response to an viewers query, she added: “I want we have been at a spot the place it was not scary for individuals to be who they’re. I want that we lived in a society the place all people might settle for different individuals and their variations.

“So till we’re there, I feel there is a arduous place to say now we have big progress.”

Nonetheless, the youthful era are “extra comfy with it” and are “simply form of fluid”, she added. “So I feel the youthful era goes to point out us the way in which.”

After some former employees on her discuss present made allegations of a poisonous office tradition, the star – who ended each episode by telling viewers to “be sort to 1 one other” – was dubbed as “imply” within the media.

Following the scandal three producers have been sacked amid allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment, and the ultimate season of the present opened with Ellen giving an on-air apology.

She addressed that in her 2024 tour and the accompanying Netflix stand-up particular.

“It doesn’t matter what, any article that got here up, it was like, ‘She’s imply’, and it is like, how do I cope with this with out sounding like a sufferer or ‘poor me’ or complaining? However I needed to deal with it.

“It is so simple as, I am a direct individual, and I am very blunt, and I suppose generally that implies that… I am imply?”

She additionally stated it was “form of loopy” that saying somebody is imply “will be the worst factor that you just say a couple of girl”.

“How dare us have any form of temper, or you possibly can’t be something apart from good and candy and type and submissive and complacent.”

She added: “I do not suppose I can say something that is ever going to eliminate that [reputation] or dispel it, which is hurtful to me. I hate it. I hate that individuals suppose that I am that as a result of I do know who I’m and I do know that I am an empathetic, compassionate individual.”

It was “actually an disagreeable strategy to finish” her discuss present, she stated.

Ellen stated she misses “quite a bit” about her present, however would not suppose an analogous format would work any extra.

“I imply, I want it did, as a result of I might do the identical factor right here. I might love to try this once more, however I simply really feel like individuals are watching on their telephones, or individuals aren’t actually paying consideration as a lot to televisions, as a result of we’re so inundated with with data and leisure.”

She stated she did not know what she would do sooner or later, however would choose her subsequent transfer “very rigorously”.

“I simply do not know what that’s but,” she stated. “I wish to have enjoyable, I wish to do one thing. I do like my chickens however I am a bit of bit bored.”

BBC Information used AI to assist write the abstract on the high of this text. It was edited by BBC journalists. Find out more.

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