“Ellen Lashes Out At Porta!” shouts the headline in New Idea, which adds that “it’s been a tough few months for the couple.” The magazine says that with her show “rapidly losing viewers” due to the toxic workplace allegations, “all hell’s broken loose behind closed doors” for the talk show host. “Ellen is panicking big time,” an anonymous insider reveals.
“She’s used to her show being top of the pile, so this is a whole new world for her. She’s anxious and completely on the edge. Poor Portia [de Rossi] is bearing the brunt of it.” As evidence of this, the source points to an anecdote about de Rossi driving her wife home before DeGeneres “turned into a nightmare back-seat driver, urging her to drive faster. Portia had to pull over and threaten to call an Uber if she didn’t get off her back!”
While we understand why this tabloid wants to pile on Ellen DeGeneres, this story seems more like an attempt to capitalize on the drama surrounding the host than an actual true story about the couple. For one, the only person who would know about the bizarre backseat driving story would be Portia de Rossi, and we strongly doubt that she’s gabbing to loose-lipped strangers about a fight with her wife.
The paparazzi have taken photos of all the aisles the couple walked through the last time they went shopping, but no one even caught a passing glimpse of the stars fighting on the side of the road? In reality, the couple looks to be living their lives as normally as they can, and there haven’t been any signs of the supposed marital strife.
Besides, the tabloid’s being disingenuous when it claims that DeGeneres’ show is floundering or that her career is in the gutter. The most recent numbers place her at a solid third in ratings, behind only Live! with Kelly and Ryan and Dr. Phil. Her ratings have dropped somewhat, but most of the other daytime talk shows are experiencing drops as well. She’s still doing better Kelly Clarkson despite airing on 56 fewer stations, and her numbers are far above Drew Barrymore’s.
Earlier this year, New Idea‘s DeGeneres insiders reported that Barrymore’s show was going to spell doom for Ellen, but in an unsurprising twist, they were totally off-base. DeGeneres and her show won the People’s Choice Award for Daytime Talk Show of 2020, so it’s kind of bizarre to claim that her career is falling apart.
There’s also the fact that New Idea has been talking up a possible de Rossi and DeGeneres divorce since these allegations first broke, and Gossip Cop debunked an August claim from the magazine about de Rossi suffering as a result of her wife’s allegations. Months have passed since that report, and despite de Rossi sticking by her spouse’s side the entire time, the outlet doesn’t seem to have realized that there’s no basis to its claims.
That’s not all — the tabloid seems to have forgotten the fact that it already said DeGeneres had already planned to bail on the show next year. All of these conflicting reports point to one thing: New Idea has no idea what Ellen DeGeneres or her wife are doing.