Ellen DeGeneres is relaxing after signing off of her eponymous talk show after 19 seasons.
The comedian and wife Portia de Rossi were photographed Monday grabbing a bite to eat while on vacation in Marrakesh, Morocco. They were also seen holding hands as they took in the colorful sights the African city has to offer.
Before dimming the lights on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” the former host revealed she planned to head to Africa to spend time at the education campus she opened that works to save wild mountain gorillas.
Sources told Page Six that the end of the show brought a lot of emotions to the set and to the host herself.
“Ellen’s been crying a lot,” a source shared. “The whole few weeks leading up to the finale were very emotional.”
Another source told us that DeGeneres, 64, didn’t want to make a big hurrah of the last episode’s taping.
“She wanted to go out quietly,” a highly placed TV source told Page Six. “It was friends and family of the cast and crew in the audience.”
The show found itself embroiled in a toxic workplace scandal last year after BuzzFeed News published an article featuring interviews with 11 former staffers describing the awful conditions under DeGeneres’ watch.
DeGeneres subsequently offered an on-air apology, saying she was not aware of the alleged problems plaguing her production, but the mea culpa didn’t stop the show from taking a significant dip in ratings and sponsorships. DeGeneres then announced in May 2021 that she’d be ending the series.
In her final comments, the “Finding Nemo” star reflected on how far the show — and society — has come by touching upon many of the changes the world has seen.
“When we started in 2003, the iPhone didn’t exist. Social Media didn’t exist. Gay marriage wasn’t legal. We watched the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not,” she tweeted.
“But whatever was happening, my goal was always for the show to be a place where we could all come together and laugh for an hour,” the star continued. “Being invited into your lives has been the greatest privilege of my life and has brought me incredible joy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
