Comedian Margaret Cho says Ellen DeGeneres was ‘not nice’ to her

Comedian Margaret Cho has joined the chorus of people to air an Ellen DeGeneres horror story, saying the host “wasn’t nice” to her for years.

Comedian Margaret Cho has spoken out about her “creepy and weird” encounters with Ellen DeGeneres.

Joining the chorus of people to air their unpleasant stories about the former talk show host, who now lives on a farm in the UK, Cho revealed she opened for DeGeneres at comedy clubs in the 1980s before they both hit the big time.

Years later, Cho said she was invited as a guest on DeGeneres’ talk show, where she claimed the host pretended they had never met before.

“Ellen was really weird and not nice to me for most of my career,” Cho said on The Kelly Mantle Show podcast.

“I opened for her in the 1980s, when she was a headliner in comedy clubs. Later, when I would do her talk show in the 2000s, she would act like we just met. And I’m like, ‘Bitch, what?’ That’s weird. We go way back. It’s so creepy and weird.”

Margaret Cho made the revelation on The Kelly Mantle Show.

Ellen DeGeneres has been the subject of claims she’s “not nice”. Picture: AP

Things got weirder as Cho, 56, recalled a bizarre broadcast edit she felt was a personal swipe from DeGeneres, 67.

Remembering how she attended a David Bowie concert in a “Chinese emperor outfit”, Cho said the late singer went on DeGeneres’ show the very next day where he talked at length about the comedian’s fabulous attire at his show.

“The producer, who’s a really good friend of mine, had to call me and tell me, ‘I can’t believe she did this, but she cut it out of the show,’” Cho said.

“[The producer continued] ‘But you need to know that he was going on and on about your outfit. God [Bowie] said your name. He loves you.’”

While unsure if the comments were cut for another reason, Cho conceded, “I’m going to take it personally.”

Cho claimed David Bowie’s comments were cut from the broadcast. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/AFP

DeGeneres, who is married to Australian actress Portia de Rossi, quit her long-running talk show in 2022 following widespread reports of a toxic environment on-set.

It all started when a March 2020 tweet claimed DeGeneres was “notoriously one of the meanest people alive”, which was met by more than 1000 replies of people detailing their not-so-nice experiences with her.

The aftermath was even more brutal, with countless Ellen staff coming forward on the record with their own stories of bullying.

Addressing claims for the first time after her return to TV for the show’s 18th season months later, DeGeneres admitted she was a “work in progress” but pleaded to viewers that she is still “the person you see on TV”.

Ellen ended her talk show after nearly 20 years. Picture: Warner Bros

“As you may have heard this summer there were allegations of a toxic work environment at our show and then there was an investigation. I learned that things happened here that never should’ve happened,” she said at the time.

“I take that very seriously, and I want to say I’m so sorry to the people who were affected.”

She admitted being known as the “be kind” lady is “a tricky position to be in”.

“Sometimes I get sad. I get mad. I get anxious. I get frustrated. I get impatient. And I am working on all of that. I am a work in progress,” she said.

“And I am especially working on the impatience thing because … and it’s not going well because it’s not happening fast enough.”

DeGeneres moved to the UK with de Rossi late last year, shortly after US President Donald Trump was elected.

She’s shared brief glimpses on social media of her quieter life living on a sprawling property.

It is unclear where in the UK DeGeneres and de Rossi have relocated to, but they are rumoured to have set up in the English countryside.

Shortly after news of the couple’s big move broke, the two were spotted out with a group of friends at The Farmer’s Dog in the Cotswolds, a countryside region in England.

They had earlier in the year sold two of their homes in Montecito, California, in March and August.

Originally published as Comedian Margaret Cho says Ellen DeGeneres was ‘not nice’ to her