‘She was laughing at me’: Ellen DeGeneres hit with new ‘mean girl’ claims from reality TV star

A reality TV star has come forward with her experience with Ellen DeGeneres, claiming the talk show host made her “feel stupid” on-air.

Ali Fedotowsky claims Ellen DeGeneres made her “feel stupid” when she made an appearance on the now-cancelled The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The 40-year-old reality TV star, who starred on The Bachelorette in 2010, sat down with Kaitlyn Bristowe on a recent episode of Off the Vine podcast where she talked about meeting the comedian.

“She made me feel pretty not great,” she admitted to Bristowe, who exclaimed how much she’s heard people make similar statements about meeting DeGeneres, 66.

“It’s not that she was mean, per se, she just made me feel stupid.”

Ali Fedotowsky claims Ellen DeGeneres made her ‘feel stupid’ when on her talk show.

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Fedotowsky then explained that she was “so excited” to appear on the show before clarifying that she doesn’t think DeGeneres is “a bad person”.

“I just think that sometimes when you do a job like that all day, every single day for years, you’re just kinda over it,” she continued.

“And she’s talking to people who are crafted and then here’s this 24-year-old famous-for-no-reason comes on her show and she’s like, ‘I gotta talk to one of these idiots again?’”

Fedotowsky — who now goes by Manno after marrying Kevin Manno in 2017 — described trying to be “funny and personable” during her appearance.

DeGeneres was involved in a toxic work scandal, leading to her show’s cancellation in 2022. Picture: James Devaney/GC Images

“And instead of her laughing with me, she was laughing at me. I just felt really stupid.”

Fedotowsky appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2010, the same day that her season of The Bachelorette was set to premiere.

During the episode, DeGeneres tried to get a giddy Fedotowsky to confess if she had found love on the show before asking her, “Are you drunk?”

Bristowe, who also starred on The Bachelorette in 2015, then said, “I think the world protected me from ever going on her show because they say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes,’ and she was mine all the time.

Fedotowsky appeared on the show in 2010 ahead of her starring role on The Bachelorette.

“But I think it would have been really disappointing for me and now I dislike her because of everything I heard from very reliable sources […] I don’t get treating people like sh*t but I get being over it and I always said that if I went on The Bachelorette for one reason, it was so I could meet Ellen DeGeneres,” the 39-year-old concluded, referencing the talk show host’s toxic workplace scandal.

In May 2022, The Ellen DeGeneres Show wrapped after 19 seasons when she was accused two years prior of leading a toxic workplace, which resulted in three of her top producers being fired.

‘Instead of her laughing with me, she was laughing at me,’ Fedotowsky claimed on a new podcast. Picture: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

Several employees accused her of leading the set with intimidation, racism and fear, with a producer claiming she demanded no one make eye contact with her.

Since then, DeGeneres has laid low and even jumped the pond to live in England with her wife, Portia De Rossi, after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States for a second time in 2024.

Despite everything, Page Six exclusively revealed in June 2024 that she is planning to make one last comeback with a Netflix special and a comedy tour called Ellen’s Last Stand … Up.

“She needed some time to recover,” one of her longtime friends told Page Six.

“But she’s an artist, she wants to entertain — she can’t just sit at home.”

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as ‘She was laughing at me’: Ellen DeGeneres hit with new ‘mean girl’ claims from reality TV star