Ellen DeGeneres’ Erratic Behavior Was a Long Time Coming for This Comedian & Former Co-Star
When toxic workplace allegations on The Ellen DeGeneres Show first came to light in 2020, longtime viewers and fans of Ellen DeGeneres were surprised. With a slogan like “Be kind to one another,” it was hard to believe DeGeneres was a bad boss, let alone a toxic one.
But, according to Get Smart star and her former co-star Patrick Warburton, the allegations didn’t come as that much of a surprise.
In an interview with The Spotlight, Warburton remembered an awkward interaction he had after turning down a third guest-star spot on her sitcom, Ellen. “I did a guest spot or two on Ellen and then they asked me to come back and do another one and I was just kind of done doing guest spots at that time and it was sort of time to move on and I just said I had a conflict, all right? So, that was it,” he remembered, per Daily Mail.
“Two weeks later, I’m having lunch at a restaurant called Orso in Beverly Hills with a buddy of mine having lunch and Ellen walks up to the table and she goes, ‘Too big to do my show now, huh?'” Warburton told.
“I go, ‘No, Ellen.’ I go, ‘I just had a conflict,'” he said. DeGeneres, however, didn’t believe his bluff. “She probably sensed was just bulls– and she walked away,” he said.
Later on, when DeGeneres began her so successful talk show, Warburton knew that whatever happened between them would be a problem. “I realized at that point on, there was a reason why I was never ever gonna be invited on her talk show,” he said. “She was spurned.”
“I always knew, it was like, “Oh, Ellen’s got a great show. It’s a lot of fun. I’ll never be on it,”‘ he admitted. Talk about a feud we never knew existed!
“It was just weird because when you say you have a conflict and you don’t do something, you seem like you’re gonna be fine with that,” he reflected. “You don’t expect the star of the show to walk up to you and call you out on your s– and that’s all it was.”
Despite their tiff, Warburton still praised DeGeneres’ acting chops. “What I recall working on that show was that as far as crowd work and talking, she was just this remarkable comedian, you know, at the very, very top of the game,” Warburton said.
As a reminder, DeGeneres’ long-running talk show came to an end in 2022 not too long after a Buzzfeed News exposé revealed toxic workplace and sexual misconduct allegations.
“The ‘be kind’ girl wasn’t kind,” DeGeneres said in her new comedy special Ellen’s Last Stand… Up Tour. “I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps.”
“Do you know how hard it is to dance up steps? Would a mean person dance up steps?” she continued. “Had I ended my show by saying, ‘Go f– yourself,’ people would’ve been pleasantly surprised.” Eek!
Before you go, click here to see celebrity co-stars who allegedly hated each other in real life.