Ellen DeGeneres Calls It Quits
I told the crowd in Santa Rosa that this tour would be my final stand-up run, and that after my upcoming Netflix special I planned to step away from performing for good. The announcement felt both honest and bittersweet; a few of my scheduled shows had already been quietly canceled in cities like Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago, which only made the moment feel more real
Onstage I kept things light, because that’s how I’ve always handled the hard parts. I opened with a silly line — “I got chickens” — and then made a self-deprecating nod to the controversies that followed the end of my daytime show, joking that I’d been “kicked out of show business for being mean”. The laugh was a shield and a bridge; it let me acknowledge the past while still owning my voice
The truth is complicated. For years I built a public image around the phrase “Be kind,” and that message connected me to millions. When allegations about a toxic workplace surfaced and my talk show ended in 2022, it was a painful collision between image and reality I’ve spent the time since then reflecting, doing charity work, and deciding how I want the rest of my life to look.
Looking back, my career has been full of milestones I never expected: coming out in the 1990s and changing how people saw LGBTQ+ stories on television, turning a sitcom into a cultural moment, and later creating a daytime show that blended humor and heart in a way that felt personal to viewers. I’ve hosted the Oscars, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and used my platform to give away millions — moments that remind me why I started doing this in the first place.
Now I’m choosing something quieter. I want to live on my own terms, enjoy simple pleasures, and let the work I’ve done speak for itself. My final special will likely mix the observational comedy people expect from me with a few honest reflections, and I hope it will feel like a proper goodbye rather than an exit under pressure
Fans are processing this as the end of an era, and I understand that. I’m not walking away in bitterness; I’m stepping toward peace and a different kind of life — one where I can still find humor in the hard parts but without the constant glare of the spotlight
