Comedian and former TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has confirmed that she fled America for the UK due to the election of Donald Trump.
As reported by BBC, DeGeneres made the revelation during an event at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, England, over the weekend, telling broadcaster Richard Bacon that Trump’s election turned an overseas trip with wife Portia de Rossi into a permanent vacation.
“We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in,’” DeGeneres said “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.’”
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Among DeGeneres’ concerns about America under Trump is the ongoing threat against LGBTQ+ rights: “The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage,” she explained. “They’re trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we’re going to get married here… I wish we were at a place where it was not scary for people to be who they are. I wish that we lived in a society where everybody could accept other people and their differences. So until we’re there, I think there’s a hard place to say we have huge progress.”
DeGeneres also expressed the bright side of the move, saying that the UK is “absolutely beautiful. We’re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it’s just a simpler way of life. It’s clean. Everything here is just better—the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here. We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We love it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks.”
Earlier this year, Rosie O’Donnell revealed that she, too, had left America following Trump’s return to the White House by moving to Ireland.
“Although I was never someone who thought I would move to another country, that’s what I decided would be the best for myself and my 12-year-old child. And here we are,” she said via TikTok about relocating overseas with her son Clay. “I miss many things about life there at home and I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back,” she added. “It’s been heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically and hard for me personally as well. The personal is political, as we all know.”
It’s worth noting that DeGeneres’ decision was made easier by her 2024 exit from the entertainment industry after the end of her daytime talk show due to accusations of a toxic work environment. During her farewell standup tour, DeGeneres claimed to have been “kicked out of show business,” and she also told fans that her Netflix special was “the last time you’re going to see me.”
