Inside Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi's Life-Changing Love Story - E! Online (2024)

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Ellen DeGeneres is Leaving the U.S. and Moving to the U.K.

Do you remember what was Big in '04?

Paris Hiltonsaying "That's hot." Nick Lacheyand Jessica Simpsonas Newlyweds. Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsenas The Surreal Life's hottest couple.

None of those things are big anymore, but behind the scenes at VH1's Big in '04 Awardson Dec. 1, something much more momentous was brewing.

That happens to have been the night when Ellen DeGeneresran into Portia de Rossi at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, after which neither of their lives would ever be the same.

Of course, neither of their lives would ever be the same, because they've been together ever since—though they're no longer just up the road from Hollywood.

A couple months after the release of what Ellen said would be the last comedy special of her career in September, she and Portia packed up and moved to England. Multiple outlets reported that the outcome of the 2024 presidential election factored into their decision.

photosStars Who Quit Hollywood

Hopefully Ellenwill have more to say on that at some point, whether it's from behind a microphone or not.

Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Incidentally, their reported landing spot, the rustic Cotswolds, has plenty of space for the couple to keep horses and rescue dogs, the pair having always chosen homes that could accommodate a sizable menagerie. And what wasn't in question was that Portia would be along for othe ride.

But 20 years ago, falling in love with Ellen was a major step into the spotlight for the Arrested Developmentalum.

"I was thinking, Well, the people who need to know I'm gay know, and I'm somehow living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay, but it's not a big political platform. I justified it in so many ways," Portiatold The Advocate in the summer of 2005. "Believe me, I had a very, very long and difficult struggle with my sexuality."

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Since her 1999 divorce from Mel Metcalfe (the Australian actress said she married him for the green card, but ultimately didn't want to take advantage of their "great, caring relationship"), she hadn't been avoiding relationships with women, and she was seeing writer-filmmaker Francesca Gregoriniwhen she met Ellen.

Dave Benett/Getty Images for RH

But as the now-51-year-old Portia would soon admit, before she became the partner of one of the most famous openly gay women in the world, she hadn't really been living her life all the way out.

TheAlly McBeal alum let photographs taken of her with Francesca over the course of their two-year relationship, during which they lived for a time together in Vancouver, do the talking for her. But she would change the subject when interviewers asked about her sexuality. She didn't talk about that part of her private life at all, at least not publicly, until she was with Ellen.

She revealed to The Advocatein 2005that, just days beforehand, she had come out to the last person on her list, her 98 1/2-year-old grandmother in her native Australia, who initially thought she said "Alan," not "Ellen."

Portia's grandma lived till 103, passing away at home with a photo from her granddaughter's 2008 wedding to Alan on her bedside table.

photosEllen DeGeneres' Best Pranks

Ellen's public coming out, meanwhile, occurred on the April 14, 1997, cover ofTIME magazine, so she was fully aware of how much of a conversation simply living one's truth could start.

"She was so courageous and so loud in '97, and now she is doing something that is more subliminal," Portia said admiringly. "She's changing the world, she really is, and it's exciting to be a part of that." She added, "It's hard having a relationship that's public. It's hard living a life that's somewhat public, and hard when you put that life together with someone who is so famous and so loved and admired. It's also real exciting."

Afterdating Anne Hechefor a few headline-making years, Ellen first met Portia in 2000. "I really never stopped thinking about her," Portia told The Advocate, "because I just haven't felt that kind of energy with anyone in my life. So there's that."

Then they saw each other again at a photo shoot and Ellen "took my breath away," she recalled. So when they reunited at the Big in '04 Awards, that was that.

photosRemember These LGBTQ Firsts on TV?

By the end of 2005, they were sharing a two-bedroom home in L.A. and parenting three rescue cats, plus they bought a 120-acre ranch.

"It's the first time that I've known in every cell of my being that I'm with somebody for the rest of my life," Ellen toldPeople in November 2005. She had been in a relationship with photographer Alexandra Hedisonfor four years before she and Portia got together.

"We were just supposed to be together," the still fairly new talk show hostsaid. "It was a tough decision. I was physically getting sick because I was trying not to say anything. So I told Alex and she told Francesca. It was really hard to uproot everything."

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Francesca admitted toThe Advocate in 2014 that her breakup with Portia was "pretty harrowing. I've never really talked about it, and, I want to be respectful to all the players, and, to be honest, I've definitely made my peace—Portia and I are friends, I'm friends with Ellen."

"Everything turned out as it was meant to," she added, "but it definitely, at the time, it was a very harrowing experience, because heartbreak is harrowing. Any breakup is just awful, but then to be dragged through the press, while it's happening, in real time, it's definitely not a picnic. It did make me stronger. I definitely went down for the count, for a couple months there, but, it definitely gave me a resolve to pick myself up, and make something of myself, and my life...

"We were meant to be together for that point in time, and, and then not, and I think she's found a great partner for her. I think they're really well matched."

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation

Both dedicated animal lovers, Ellen and Portia have also been doting moms to their various rescue pets, while Ellen's eponymous talk show was her other baby for 19 years.

"It's the hardest job I've ever had, but it's the most satisfaction I've ever had, so I'm sure it's like being a mother," she told People in 2005, when The Ellen DeGeneres Showwas only in its third season."It challenges you every day."

She ultimately won 33 Daytime Emmys—including five for Outstanding Talk Show Host before she took herself out of the running in 2010—as well as a prime-time Emmy for writing from her 1990s sitcom Ellen.

Rumors abounded that she might step down (or be canceled, in the actual TV sense) ahead of the 2020-2021 season amid an investigation into allegations of a toxic work environment behind the scenes atEllen. Ultimately three producers were fired, but the show's namesake vowed to her staffand her audience—to do better and pressed on, eventually setting her exit date for 2022.

photosRemember These LGBTQ Firsts on TV?

"I learned that things happened here that never should have happened," Ellen said on her season 18 premiere in September 2020. "I take that very seriously and I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected...We have made the necessary changes, and today we are starting a new chapter."

Her fans were there for her, voting hertalk show toE! People's Choice Awards in 2020 and 2021.

"It means more to me especially now," she told the audience in December 2021. "This is our final season so to all the people who voted and to everyone that I have worked with for the past 19 years, we are a family. I love all of you. I'm grateful and thank you for supporting me for all these 19 years that we've been doing the show and the show has been the greatest experience of my life. I have enjoyed every bit of it."

And Portia was by her side through most of it.

readHow Ellen DeGeneres Said An Emotional Goodbye to Her Talk Show

"It broke my heart," Ellen toldPeoplein February 2021of the turmoil surrounding her show. "I couldn't have gone through everything I went through without her. "It was a horrible time in my life, and she was a rock. She kept me going and tried to help me put things in perspective."

Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for RH

Portia told the magazine, "We've grown together as a couple, and we really consider each other and put our relationship first. By doing that, you become a lot more solid. I can't imagine spending time with anyone but her."

Ellen's daytime talk chapter is now behind her—and performing in general might be, as well—but she and Portia still have each other, renewing their vows in 2023.

"With this show ending, it's actually a big thing for both of us," Ellen told Portia in May 2022 when her spouse visitedEllenas a guest for the last time, noting that they got together during season two, "'cause you've watched me go through everything with this show."

And in turn, the show's audience has been privy to many of their milestones as a couple.

Lara Porzak Photography via WireImage

On May 15, 2008, after the California Supreme Court struck down a law that barred same-sex marriage, deeming it unconstitutional, Ellen announced on the air that they were planning to tie the knot. (Same-sex marriage became legal in every state in 2015.)

She and Portia got married on Aug. 16, 2008, at their Beverly Hills estate, both wearing Zac Posen for their big day.

For a long time now, Ellenhas been right up there with Oprah Winfreyin terms of no-last-name-needed pop culture figures. And she's been quite the Southern California real estate tycoon, buying and selling more than 20 properties since 2003, including a mansion in Los Angeles that she and Portia soldfor $55 million toNapster co-founderSean Parker in 2014—six months afterbuyingit for $40 million; aBali-inspired homein Montecito they bought in 2019 for $27 million and flipped for $33.3 million the next year;anda beach house they owned in Carpinteria for two years before selling it in 2019 for $23 million to cosmetics mogul Jamie Kern Lima.

In May 2021, perArchitectural Digest, they re-purchased for $14.3 million Rancho San Leandro, a historic Montecito property they sold a few years prior to Tinder founder Sean Rad for $11 million.A month laterthey added a modest two-bedroom, midcentury-modern bungalownear Butterfly beach to their portfolio for $2.9 million.

photosCelebrity Mega Mansions

As for the 9,200-square-foot Beverly Hills house where they tied the knot: Ellen sold it to pal Ryan Seacrestfor around $40 million in 2012—apparently right out from under Jennifer Aniston.

"How's my home?" Jen teased Ryan on E! Live From the Red Carpet at the Golden Globes in 2020, joking that she knew Ellen may be right behind her and that the comedian was "well aware" of her feelings about the house.

Home ownership has proved harrowing at times: Ellen and Portia were among the thousands of residents who had to evacuate their house in Montecito when the 2017 Thomas fire blazed through the area.

The fires were followed by mudslides that left at least 20 people dead in the Montecito area.The couple had been back in their home for 10 days when they evacuated again.

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Theyexpressed their thanks to the heroic firefightersand other first responders who risked their lives during both disasters.

Talking toExtrain December 2017about their last-minute change of plans for the holidays, which they'd planned to spend in Montecito, Ellen put it all into perspective.

"We'll just lay low and just, you know, be grateful for having our pets with us and Portia's horses are evacuated and we're hoping to get them someplace soon and it's, you know, it takes something like this to just remember, you know, just how fragile life is, and how you should never take anything for granted," she said. "I'll be counting my blessings for Christmas."

photosStars Who Adopted Pets

Despite the (sometimes literal) storms they've weathered, likeany famous couple, theirsoul-mates-finding-each-other story hasn't excused them from the annoyances of being in the public eye. They've been the subject of as many split rumors as anybody, triggered by anything as innocuous-seeming as a missed award show or a bare ring finger, enough so that Ellen joked about them on her show in 2013.

She said she had beenflipping through a tabloid thatput on its cover that her marriage was crumbling, only to find that article ripped out. "I will never know what's tearing my marriage apart," she quipped.

But when stories that they were going through a messy split wouldn't go away, Ellen was compelled to speak out more forcefully in March 2014.

"The truth is, and this is corny, I fall more in love with Portia all the time. I really do," she insisted to People. "She surprises me all the time. It's what anyone experiences when you find that person that gets you, wants to take care of you, wants the best for you. We're really lucky because we know how rare it is."

APEX / MEGA

In 2016 the rumor mill was at it again, prompting Ellen to tell People, "I can't imagine not being married. I have my best friend, the person I want to spend time with more than anybody else in the world."

She and Portia remained as devoted to each other as ever, she said, and they readily put in the work that any committed relationship requires.

"Our priorities are each other too," Ellen said. "If we had kids, then I'm sure they would be, but we are. And that's important."

On their ninth wedding anniversary, she wroteon Instagram alongside one of their wedding photos, "Being her wife is the greatest thing that I am."

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In 2018, they celebrated the big 10 with fans by sharing never-before-seen pictures and video from their wedding day.

"Ten years ago, Wayne Dyer officiated our wedding ceremony. These words were life-changing to us then, and they mean just as much now," Ellen captioned one post.

"10 years ago today, Ellen and I were married," Portia wrote in another. "We wanted to share Wayne Dyer's poignant and special words with you to remind us all how far we've come—that we are living in a country that supports #marriageequality #waynedyer."

readEllen DeGeneres Surprises Portia de Rossi With Anniversary Gift...That May Require Glasses

Now with 16 years of marriage in the books, they're still having the best time together.

During her last appearance on Ellen, Portia told her wife that, for her next chapter, "Honestly, I just want you to do something that makes you really happy. But I want to make sure that you continue being a teacher, because that's really what you've been for everybody...I just feel like, more than ever, we need love and light and laughter—so I hope that you continue to do something like that. Like standup, for example."

Relatablefrom2018, DeGeneres' first stand-up special in 15 years, showed she still had the chops—andcracking wise is usually part of the gig wherever she goes.

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

"I feel like you've all really gotten to know me over the past 17 years, I am an open book," Ellen said in accepting the Carol Burnett Awardat the 2020 Golden Globes. "And I couldn't have done it without my husband, Mark. Mark, you are my rock. Thank you for supporting me through thiscrazyjourney. I know it wasn't easy for you—or the kids. Rupert and Fiona, go to bed, I love you...That's funny, 'cause they're in college now."

The room loved it, and Portia—who has been paid tribute to from a stage more times than she can count—laughed heartily along with everyone else.

"My darling wife!" she wrote for Ellen's 66th on Instagram Jan. 26. "You continue to amaze me and inspire me. Happy Birthday to the strongest, sweetest, most brilliant person I know. I’m so lucky to be standing next to you as we share this incredible life together. I love you."

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On David Letterman'sMy Next Guest Needs No Introductionin 2019, Ellen called her wife "fantastic."

"She's very, very funny. She makes me laugh, which is really important." When she started getting ready for her first stand-up special in over 15 years, the comedian said, Portia was entirely supportive and even gave her notes after every performance.

As for the split rumors, Ellen chose to view them in a positive light.

"The divorce rumors came and then we really knew the perceptions had changed," she told Dave. "I'm not kidding. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when that started happening, I thought, 'Oh, now we're finally accepted.' We get the same s--t as every celebrity couple.'

"I thought, 'Wow, this is great that I'm pregnant, not pregnant, divorced, not divorced, whatever. That means there is an acceptance for this."

Leave the rumors, take theopportunityto see more moments from Ellen and Portia's enduring love story:

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Christopher Polk/Getty Images for People's Choice Awards

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Lara Porzak Photography via WireImage

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(Originally published Jan. 24, 2018, at 6 a.m. PT; updated on Aug. 16, 2019, at 3 a.m. PT)

Inside Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi's Life-Changing Love Story - E! Online (2024)
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