Former guest makes startling new claims about Ellen DeGeneres: ‘Worst person’

A comedian who appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has claimed staff were “scared to death” of the host.

A comedian has made startling new claims about Ellen DeGeneres’ alleged behaviour behind the scenes of her now-cancelled talk show.

Adam Carolla appeared on conservative commentator Emily Jashinsky’s podcast After Party on July 30, where he was asked his thoughts on the star’s recent move to the UK after Donald Trump’s presidential win.

The former Man Show host said that he believed the likes of DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell moved across the pond as Trump’s win last November “triggered the unravelling of very talented people”.

Comedian Adam Carolla shared his experience with Ellen DeGeneres on Emily Jashinsky’s podcast.

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But Carolla claimed that DeGeneres has always been a “mean person”, so said it came as a surprise to him that she is now speaking about the “grave injustice” – as host Jashinsky described it – happening in the US under Trump’s new immigration policy.

Carolla then shared an anecdote of the two occasions he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where was met by staff who were “scared to death” of the talk show host.

Carolla said DeGeneres has always been a “mean person”.

“I knew they were scared because it’s like, I was just sitting in my dressing room and their segment producer came in, and he went, ‘All right, so we went over all the stuff we’re going to talk about.’ You know, Christmas vacation or whatever it was. And I go, ‘Yeah, yeah,’” he recalled on the podcast.

At the time, DeGeneres was a staunch vegan and so the producer wanted to avoid certain topics on air during the 2012 taping.

“[The producer] goes, ‘You’re not going to talk about meat or beef or anything like that, right?’ And I go, ‘No, I’m not. I’m just going to talk about the stuff we talked about – going on vacation at Christmas or the kids or you know, their anecdotes.’”

But Carolla claims the producer returned to the room to again drill into him that meat products were not to be discussed.

“He came back like 20 minutes later right before I went out, and he’s like, ‘OK, but don’t talk about beef or meat or any[thing],’” he recalled.

“I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s scared to death.’”

The comedian made an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2012.

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Carolla then shared a conversation he had with another staffer who labelled DeGeneres the “worst person”.

“Later on, I talked to someone who signed an NDA, so I won’t say his name, but he wrote for Ellen,” Carolla shared.

“I just went, ‘How’s Ellen?’ And he said, ‘Worst person, worst person. Not worst person I’ve worked for. Worst person I’ve ever met.’”

Carolla said that a producer told him he wasn’t allowed to discuss certain topics on air.

DeGeneres’ reputation first took a hit in 2020, after several anonymous The Ellen DeGeneres Show employees came forward with allegations of racism, sexual misconduct, and hostility behind the scenes in a BuzzFeed exposé.

Her show subsequently came to an end in 2022 after 19 seasons, with the star officially calling it quits.

“I want you to know I thought about this decision for a long time,” DeGeneres said on the show at the time. “I meditated on it, I talked to [wife] Portia, I talked to myself … The point is, I need to take a break from talking. I always trust my instincts, and my instincts told me it’s time.”

DeGeneres said her reasoning for quitting was because it was “just not a challenge anymore”.

“When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged. And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore,” she said.