From That Picture With George W. Bush To Dakota Johnson’s Memeworthy Confrontation— A Timeline Of Ellen DeGeneres’ Downfall

Last Thursday, American comedian, television host, and Finding Dory actress Ellen DeGeneres penned a personal memo to the employees of her talk show in an effort to address recent allegations of workplace toxicity.

“My name is on the show and everything we do and I take responsibility for that,” she said while addressing recent complaints about her contributions to a toxic work environment on the show. “Alongside Warner Bros, we immediately began an internal investigation and we are taking steps, together, to correct the issues. As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t. That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again.”

Writing about what she has learned in recent weeks, DeGeneres vowed to push herself “to learn and grow.”

“We all have to be more mindful about the way our words and actions affect others, and I’m glad the issues at our show were brought to my attention,” she went on to write. “I promise to do my part in continuing to push myself and everyone around me to learn and grow. It’s important to me and to Warner Bros. that everyone who has something to say can speak up and feels safe doing so.”

DeGeneres’s letter comes at a time when serious allegations have been made about her and the executive producers on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Still, while current complaints have gone viral recently, they only seem to be part of an upset over the comedian’s behavior that has been years in the making

Check out the timeline of her downward spiral below:

December 2018 – The New York Times publishes the “Ellen DeGeneres Is Not as Nice as You Think” headline

In a New York Times profile, reporter Jason Zinoman examined the comedian’s happy television host persona against her 2018 Netflix stand-up special, titled “Relatable”. With a headline that read “Ellen DeGeneres Is Not as Nice as You Think,” Zinoman wrote, “In sharp contrast to her public image as everyone’s good friend, happy to listen, she presents herself — with tongue in cheek — as cartoonishly aloof and indifferent, stuck in a privileged bubble, cracking several jokes, for instance, about her fabulous wealth.”

January 2019 – Defense of Kevin Hart and dismissal of his disappointed fans as “haters”

Soon after comedian and actor, Kevin Hart was ousted from his position as an Academy Awards host due to a series of discovered homophobic tweets and jokes he’d made, DeGeneres, invited him to come on her show.

During her interview with him, DeGeneres urged Hart to ignore the backlash he’d received and dismissed his critics as “haters.” Soon after, she appealed to the academy to hire him for the Oscars once again much to her supporters’ chagrin.

October 2019 – DeGeneres takes a photo with George W. Bush

In the fall of 2019, DeGeneres was pictured with former president George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers game. The photo sparked backlash and expressions of disappointment online. After all, during his presidency, Bush pushed for bans on same-sex marriage.
DeGeneres belittled negative comments about the photo writing, “People were upset. They thought, ‘Why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?’ “Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush. In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different, and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s okay that we’re all different.”

November 2019 – Dakota Johnson calls DeGeneres out for lying on her own show

Known as the incident that might have first brought down Ellen, Johnson’s 2019 appearance on the comedian’s daytime show undoubtedly opened the floodgates. During an interview with the Fifty Shades Of Grey actress, DeGeneres commented about not being invited to her 30th birthday party asking “How was the party? I wasn’t invited.” Johnson was quick to defend herself in an awkward but honest moment saying “Actually, no, that’s not the truth, Ellen. You were invited.”

Oof.

March 2020 – And of course, that viral Twitter post

Months after Johnson’s appearance, a Twitter thread posted by “Gilmore Guys” podcast co-host Kevin T. Porter went viral after he petitioned for negative stories about DeGeneres’s behavior in “exchange for food bank donations.”

The tweet reeled in over 16K comments and a whole lot of horrifying stories about the actress.