Ellen DeGeneres thinks news of her toxic workplace scandal was "too orchestrated" and "very misogynistic"

Variety

In an interview with Today's Savannah Guthrie, DeGeneres continued to insist she isn't ending her show because of last summer's toxic workplace scandal -- though "I really did think about not coming back because…it was devastating." DeGeneres repeated that "If it was why I was quitting, I would have not come back this year." Guthrie asked DeGeneres if she thought she was being "canceled." “I really didn’t understand it," said DeGeneres. "I still don’t understand it. It was too orchestrated. It was too coordinated. People get picked on, but for four months straight for me. And then for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment, when all I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place this is. I don’t know how I could have known when there’s 255 employees here and there are a lot of different buildings, unless I literally stay here until the last person goes home at night. It is my name on the show, so clearly it affects me and I have to be the one to stand up and say, ‘This can’t be tolerated.’ But I do wish somebody would have come to me and said, ‘Hey, something’s going on that you should know about.' She added: "How can I be an example of strength and perseverance and power if I give up and run away?” she said. “And so, it really is one of the reasons I came back. I worked really hard on myself. And also, I have to say if nobody else is saying it, it was really interesting because I’m a woman, and it did feel very misogynistic.” 

ALSO:

• Ellen DeGeneres tells Oprah Winfrey "I got emotional because it's real now": "I feel like it's the right thing to do, but I'm charged. It's a weird thing to announce that I'm stopping," DeGeneres said while discussing her decision to end her show with Winfrey, her guest on Thursday's show. Winfrey recalled being in the same position when she ended her show a decade ago after 25 seasons. "I know what those feelings are. I also know the feelings leading up to it," Winfrey said. "So hearing you say and announcing to the world that it was your instinct and that you thought long and hard about it because anybody would know that for something that is as powerful as this show is in other people's lives, that you would not take that lightly and that the coming to the realization that now it is time is a process." Winfrey also told DeGeneres what she did and didn't miss about her show. “I miss the audience the most,” Winfrey said. “What I didn’t miss, I’ll tell you what I didn’t miss and when I knew, when I started to feel like it’s time for me to end, I was doing a makeover show. We did a lot of makeovers over the years. And I just thought, there’s not another way I can ask somebody, ‘What mascara are you wearing?” There’s not another way I can say, ‘What color is that eyeshadow you are using?’ There wasn’t another way I could do that and be honest, authentic with myself. And so I thought, time to start thinking about moving in another direction.”
• With her Today show comments, Ellen DeGeneres continues to distance herself from Ellen DeGeneres
• It took less than 24 hours for DeGeneres to start talking about cancel culture