Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have said goodbye to all that and relocated from their primary home in Montecito, California to the United Kingdom’s rural but ritzy Cotswolds region, according to a report Wednesday in The Wrap.
The couple, who wed in 2008, reportedly told friends that the move was motivated by the re-election of Donald Trump for a second term as president, and that they do not have plans to return to the United States. Their Montecito property will reportedly be sold.
Of course, DeGeneres has also suffered a years-long fall from grace in the public eye after reports of the comedian creating a toxic environment on the set of her long-running talk show. Even Kevin Hart calling her “one of the dopest people on the fucking planet” couldn’t stop DeGeneres from, in her words, being “kicked out of showbiz.” The Ellen show ended in 2022, after 19 seasons on air, and in a July 2024 audience Q&A after a performance of her Ellen’s Last Stand…Up Tour said that she was quitting showbiz entirely.
“This is the last time you’re going to see me,” she said. “After my Netflix special, I’m done.”
Said special, For Your Approval, hit Netflix in late September, and that, apparently, is that. She did reveal in the special that she had started raising her own chickens, which seems like a fitting hobby for life in the Cotswolds.
The couple, who renewed their wedding vows in February 2023 with a little help from officiant Kris Jenner, with Montecito neighbors Prince Harry and Meghan Markle among their guests, have already been spotted out and about in their new region. An Instagram video shared last week showed the two at a pub with friends including singers Natalie Imbruglia and James Blunt, taking in a live acoustic performance by The Corrs.
DeGeneres supported Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and shared her endorsement in August via Instagram, writing, “There’s nothing more powerful than a woman whose time has come!! I can’t wait for @KamalaHarris to be our next president.”
Sources told TMZ that the couple had snapped up their new U.K. property before the election, but that they were “very disillusioned” after Trump’s win and decided it was time “to get the hell out.”
Representatives for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi did not immediately return Vanity Fair’s request for comment.