Ellen DeGeneres during the IHEART Living Room Concert for America. (FOX/Getty)
Ellen DeGeneres, the US daytime talk show host battered this year by bullying allegations, announced Thursday (10 December) that she has COVID-19.
The face of the eponymous The Ellen DeGeneres Show took to Twitter to confirm that she has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
On a screenshotted iPhone Notes page, she revealed that she is feeling fine and is following the Centre for Disease Controls and Prevention’s coronavirus guidelines.
The 62-year-old wrote: “Hi everyone, I want to let you all know that I tested positive for COVID-19.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) December 10, 2020
“Fortunately, I’m feeling fine right now. Anyone who has been in close contact with me has been notified, and I am following all proper CDC guidelines.
“I’ll see you all again after the holidays. Please stay healthy and safe.
“Love, Ellen”.
DeGeneres did not confirm whether her wife, retired actor Portia de Rossi, has also tested positive for the virus.
Ellen DeGeneres tests positive for coronavirus, capping off a choppy year for the TV host.
As 2020 draws to a close, testing positive for the coronavirus has capped off a truly dispiriting and turbulent year for the television personality, once regaled by thousands of fans as an oasis of optimism.
But her once-sparkling reputation has been whittled away this year amid a patchwork of claims from former and current Ellen Show staffers and audience members that the set is engulfed by “toxicity”.
DeGeneres had vastly remained on mute while a wave of allegations hit her and her senior-level staffers. So, with the pressure piling, her eighteenth season-opening in September came to be viewed as something of a test to see whether she could rebuild trust with her once committed audience.
In a seven-minute-long monologue, she finally addressed the raft of accusations, admitting that she’s a “work in progress” and that she has “taken responsibility”.
The flood gates opened this year after one of Ellen’s ex-employees, Kevin T Porter, described her as “one of the meanest people alive” in a winding Twitter thread, prompting countless staffers – former and present – to accuse DeGeneres and her senior staff as abuse.
Following an internal investigation into the claims by WarnerMedia, producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman were all fired ahead of the show’s return to screens.