Viewers have reacted to an ‘awkward’ interaction between Graham Norton and Ellen DeGeneres on his chat show.
Typically celebrity guests appear on the hot BBC programme to promote an upcoming project. But by her own admission, Ellen currently has ‘no work’ lined up, prompting Graham to ask the US star: ‘Why are you here?’
Ellen now lives in the Cotswold with wife Portia de Rossi having quit life in the US after her own talkshow was cancelled in 2022 amid allegations of bullying.
Since then, she has kept a low-profile – but she admitted to host Graham that she ‘misses’ being on TV.
Speaking about her break from the spotlight, Ellen said: “‘I miss a lot about it, I miss laughing every single day with the writers, I miss the guests, I miss kissing [fellow guest] Colin [Farrell], I miss a lot of it. I think about doing something here.
‘”It does seem easy to get on television here,” she continued. “I just call you up and say, ‘I’ve got nothing to promote, can I just sit on the couch?’ And you say, ‘yeah’.”
Ellen, 68, added: “There are shows here I’m just shocked someone went and sold it. You have a sewing show so you’re just watching someone sew, you have a pottery show… there’s even have a show about people watching television.
“I mow everyday, I like to mow so I thought people could mow and see how long they disassociate from their family.
“I think it is pretty easy to get on TV here – you have a pottery show, you have a sewing show, and you even have a show about people watching TV shows!”
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe TV star also reflected on her self-titled sitcom, which ran from 1994 to 1998 and featured the first openly gay lead character on a US series.
“In the US they were not very thrilled about my character or me coming out so for it to be celebrated in London was such an honour,” she said. “To be treated that way when everyone else was done with me was extraordinary.”
But viewers at home were left confused by Ellen’s appearance on the show.
“But why is Ellen DeGeneres on Graham Norton?” one questioned, while a second asked: “Why does it look so awkward that Eleen DeGeneres is on the Graham Norton Show?” A third joked: “How much did Ellen DeGeneres pay to get on The Graham Norton Show?”
Others were confused as to why the US host refused to join the other guests on the sofa – Quentin Tarantino, Colin Farrell, and Gemma Chan – in their applause. “Ellen not clapping and sitting so ominously in the corner… evil beaming through the screen; Why is Ellen DeGeneres on Graham Norton?,” one wrote.
In 2024, Ellen turned her back on California and relocated to the UK. Along with wife Portia, she set up home in the Cotswolds – the picturesque region of England spanning areas of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Beloved for its rolling hills, idyllic villages and stone cottages, the Cotswolds has become home to an array of A-listers, including Kate Moss, Hugh Grant, and David and Victoria Beckham.
Ellen later confirmed that she decided to move to Britain after Donald Trump was re-elected US president.
Speaking at the Everyman theatre near Cheltenham in 2025, Ellen told broadcaster Richard Bacon that she and Portia had initially planned to spend three or four months a year in the UK and purchased “a part-time house”.
“We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in’,” she said. “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here’.”
Ellen and Portia have well and truly settled into life in the UK. “It’s absolutely beautiful,” Ellen further told Richard. “We’re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it’s just a simpler way of life.
© Instagram“It’s clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here,” continued the actress, adding that Portia had flown her horses over from the US.
“I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks,” she said.
In July last year, the couple announced they were selling their 43-acre property to relocate to a home nearby.
“When we decided to live here full time, we knew that Portia couldn’t live without her horses,” Ellen told The Wall Street Journal. “We needed a home that had a horse facility and pastures for them.”
The couple recently received the green light to build new stables for their horses at their Oxfordshire home. West Oxfordshire District Council granted them planning permission subject to a number of conditions.
