Ellen Says Her Staff Literally Ran Away From Her (When They Found Out She Had COVID-19 )
"Some have not come back since.”
Returning to filming after testing positive for COVID-19, Ellen Degeneres has revealed that she found out she had the virus while on-set, prompting her staff to literally run from her.
DeGeneres tested positive for COVID-19 in December, which put an instant halt on the show: she’s returned recovered to film the final day of her annual ’12 Days of Giveaways’. In the show’s opening monologue, she focused on her experience with the virus.
“Obviously there are a lot of negative things going on, so instead I’m going to talk about something positive: my COVID test,” she said.
“I was in hair and makeup, getting my face powdered and my extensions put in. And then my assistant Craig walks in and said, ‘You tested positive for COVID,’ and then everyone around me ran away. It’s funny, people just really get scared, and they ran. Some have not come back since.”
The latter line could be read as a reference to the allegations of toxic on-set behaviour on the Ellen set, which saw multiple producers fired. The show halted last year after the allegations were reported by BuzzFeed, though resumed in September.
As for her second comeback episode, DeGeneres went on to explain that after learning she was positive, she immediately left the set and went home, where she slept for 16 hours each day for the next three days.
“[Ellen’s wife] Portia [DiRossi] made me sleep in a different room, on a different bed, because she wanted the racecar bed all to herself,” she joked.
DeGeneres said her sole symptom was back spasms, for which she was given pain killers and muscle relaxers which she says did little to numb the pain, akin to a cracked rib.
And like that, The Ellen Show is back for 2021, despite the public fallout of its host last year — and reports that the show is bleeding advertisers, losing ratings and struggling to get celebrity bookings.
“I wouldn’t set up anyone on her show right now to do anything that could possibly cause them more negative headlines,” a publicist told BuzzFeed.
Watch Ellen’s comeback monologue below.