American comedian Ellen Degeneres, host of The Ellen Show has recently been under the spotlight for her mistreatment of crew members on the show, which has featured almost every celebrity in Hollywood.

Ellen’s charisma and humor bring in about four million views per episode, but recently fans have been shocked with what goes on behind the scenes. Her friendly and amicable persona seen on TV seems to contrast greatly with her real personality. 

Former and current staff members have recently come forward with reports of appalling behavior such as discrimination, racism, and sexual misconduct. A former employee recalled that one of the producers told her, “Oh, wow, you both have box braids—I hope we don’t get you confused,” and “I’m sorry, I only know the names of the white people who work here.”

In addition, executive Ellen producers Kevin Leman and Ed Glavin were accused of inappropriately touching female staff members. 

Many celebrities have come to the defense of The Ellen Show. People like Kevin Hart, Katy Perry, and Degeneres’s own wife, Portia de Rossi, have emerged with their support.

However, Nikkie de Jager, a well-known YouTube makeup artist and former Australian TV executive, shared stories of how the crew was rudely treated and told not to approach or even make eye contact with Ellen. 

After facing immense pressure from the media and viewers of the show, Ellen DeGeneres issued an apology on July 30th.

It reads, “On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness… Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case… 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.”

This apology was not received well by the public, who believed it to be insincere, as Ellen blamed her faults on staff members.

Brad Garrett tweeted the next day, “Sorry but it comes from the top @TheEllenShow. I know more than one person who was treated horribly by her. Common knowledge.”

Famed actress Lea Thompson chimed in to support Garrett’s statement.

To make matters worse, in August, Ellen’s old tweet from 2009 caught the public eye. It states, “I made one of my employees cry like a baby on today’s show. Honestly, it felt good.” 

Since then, there has been much speculation about the future of The Ellen Show, but DeGeneres has returned— to the distress of many people. Ellen revealed that producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman had been fired, and she is taking steps towards bettering herself and improving the work conditions on her show.