Ellen DeGeneres wrote an email to her staff apologizing for letting her show’s workplace slip from a “place of happiness” to the nightmare it has reportedly become.
DeGeneres credited the staff for her show’s success and said that she intends to improve the mood of the workplace after multiple reports of harassment, racism, and bullying surfaced from current and former members of her staff, prompting an internal investigation from her parent company Warner Brothers.
“On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness — no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry. Anyone who knows me knows it’s the opposite of what I believe and what I hoped for our show,” she wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Hollywood Reporter this week.
“As we’ve grown exponentially, 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,” she later added. “Clearly some didn’t. That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again. […] I want everyone at home to love our show and I want everyone who makes it to love working on it. Again, I’m so sorry to anyone who didn’t have that experience.”
DeGeneres said she would have addressed the issues in person “if not for COVID.” The Hollywood Reporter also reported that Ed Glavin, an executive producer on the show who has been at the center of many of the accusations of harassment, was fired by the show, but Warner Brothers would not confirm, and DeGeneres did not address any terminations in her letter.
