It is a long way from sunny Montecito, California, to England’s currently distinctly chilly Cotswolds.
But that is the move American superstar and enthusiastic Democrat supporter Ellen DeGeneres was this week said to be planning in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election as Republican president.
And while it might seem a surprising decision for a woman who has made hundreds of millions from hosting a hit daytime chat show on the other side of the Atlantic, it intriguingly mirrors, in reverse, the famous move of one of her friends.
For Ms DeGeneres, 66, is close to the Duchess of Sussex – who herself lived in the heart of the Cotswolds with her husband Prince Harry not long before they famously quit Britain to settle in Montecito.
The TV star’s friendship with her Californian neighbour Meghan involved her convincing the estranged royal to adopt a labrador-German shepherd cross when they bumped into each other at a dog shelter near their homes.
Miss DeGeneres had previously visited the Duke and Duchess while they were still living in Britain, at Frogmore Cottage, their home in Windsor, and even helped feed their young son Archie.
But while the Sussexes are staying put in sunny California, Miss DeGeneres and her Australian actress wife Portia de Rossi, 51, are reported to have already bought a house in the Cotswolds, and to be preparing to sell their sprawling estate in Montecito.
American sources have claimed the pair were ‘very disillusioned’ by Mr Trump’s victory, and plan to ‘get the hell out’ of and ‘never return’ to America.
Ellen DeGeneres, 66, and her wife Portia de Rossi, 51, have fled the US and moved to rural England, it has been reported. They are pictured in 2022 in San Francisco, California
DeGeneres and de Rossi have reportedly listed their Bali-inspired mansion in Montecito, California, amid their move to the UK. They purchased the home in 2019
Miss DeGeneres had previously visited the Duke and Duchess while they were still living in Britain, at Frogmore Cottage , their home in Windsor, and even helped feed their young son
One friend said: ‘Ellen has fallen in love with the property in the Cotswolds. She has been on the lookout for a house in the area and often visits her celebrity pals.
‘A Cotswolds house has become a status symbol in the celebrity world – and Ellen wanted to join the pack.’
But exactly how she will fit into the Cotswolds remains to be seen.
Controversialist TV presenter Piers Morgan responded to the news of her imminent residence with characteristic bluntness, saying yesterday: ‘OMG…no!’
But Ms DeGeneres has already been on trial runs in the Cotswolds, as well as having previous experience of landing on her feet after an apparent setback.
This pretty rural hilly area spanning parts of not only Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, but also Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, has in recent years become a British celebrity hotspot, a couple of hours’ drive from London.
At the heart of the social scene is the rural outpost of elite private members’ club Soho House, close to the beautiful thatched-cottage honeyed stone village of Great Tew, Oxfordshire.
Meghan had her 2018 hen party at the country club – and she and Prince Harry for some time rented a £1.4million 18th-century country home walking distance away.
Downham Hill is pictured in Autumn, in The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire
A person close to DeGeneres said she and de Rossi were fleeing the US in response to the 2024 presidential election, in which former President Donald Trump won
Sources told TMZ that DeGeneres and de Rossi had already purchased the Cotswolds home before the 2024 election, but they decided to ‘get the hell out’ of the US afterwards
This very week the American TV host and her wife – who appeared in Ally McBeal and Arrested Development – were filmed at Clarkson’s Cotswolds pub The Farmer’s Dog
Not far in the opposite direction from Soho House is the country residence of David and Victoria Beckham, an expensively converted collection of three barns made from that classic Cotswold honey-coloured stone.
Although the reported ‘ethical veganism’ of Ms DeGeneres may seem at odds with the views of some Cotswolds farmers, she has in recent days been at the Oxfordshire hostelry of none other than TV presenter-turned-farmer and meat enthusiast Jeremy Clarkson.
This very week the American TV host and her wife – who appeared in Ally McBeal and Arrested Development – were filmed at Clarkson’s Cotswolds pub The Farmer’s Dog, with former Army officer pop star James Blunt.
And it was certainly not Ms DeGeneres’ first social occasion in Oxfordshire. A year ago she was spotted at a party at a 17th-century stately home there, sharing a DJ booth with British actor Idris Elba, star of television’s Luther.
News of her plans to settle here come 30 years after she rose to fame in Britain thanks to her comedy show Ellen, which was broadcast on Channel 4 in Britain.
After breaking into showbusiness via stand-up comedy on the club circuit, the New Orleans native’s first eponymous show featured her essentially playing herself as a young single bookshop worker, amid a group of friends, in what became a hit sitcom.
That hit came to an end a year after Ms DeGeneres in 1997 surprised her mother, if not all her friends, by coming out as a lesbian.
The TV star’s friendship with her Californian neighbour Meghan involved her convincing the estranged royal to adopt a labrador-German shepherd cross
Ellen DeGeneres walks onstage during the Michelle Obama: The Light We Carry Tour
She made her big announcement on a programme hosted by US TV giant Oprah Winfrey – as her future friend Meghan was later to do in a tell-all interview about her and Harry’s decision to leave Britain.
The Ellen show’s ultimate producer, however, was Disney, and in the conservative 1990s, parental warnings started to be put on screen before each broadcast before the show was ultimately cancelled.
Six years later, however, Ms DeGeneres shot back to fame.
She provided the voice for forgetful fish Dory in the blockbuster animated film Finding Nemo – and became a major force in showbusiness with her new eponymous TV smash, the Ellen DeGeneres show.
It went on to make her a huge fortune – some £60m a year – and she became friends with Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and Democrat president Barack Obama, who in 2016 gave her America’s top civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Ms DeGeneres’ years of daytime TV supremacy, which involved playing pranks in a shopping mall with troubled pop star Britney Spears, came to an end two years ago after a scandal over alleged bullying behind the scenes.
Just as the Duchess of Sussex was accused of bullying Royal staff in Britain – claims that have been firmly denied – there were widely broadcast allegations that Ms DeGeneres had presided over a ‘toxic workplace’ behind the scenes of her show.
Producers were said to have sacked one TV employee for taking time off for a funeral, and to have warned visitors not to talk to the show’s host, with 36 staff making claims.
Ms DeGeneres eventually apologised to members of her team after an internal report found ‘deficiencies related to the show’s day-to-day management’. Ratings plummeted from above 4million viewers, to little more than 1million.
It was particularly ironic in light of her farewell pay-off to viewers at the end of each episode, ‘Be kind to one another’.
In May 2021, after the bullying storm, Ms Degeneres announced her show would be coming to an end the following year, later joking that she had been ‘kicked out of show business’.
Ellen and Portia will have plenty of celebrity neighbours. Stars with properties in the Cotswolds include David and Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, and Patrick Stewart
She had also said: ‘I need something new to challenge me.’
And with her day job gone, and clearly no money worries, friends have said the election of Hollywood liberals’ nightmare Mr Trump has led her to her decision to leave America.
On top of more potential pints at Clarkson’s pub, she may now bump into fellow Cotswolds home owners including supermodel Kate Moss.
Star trek and Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart, model-cum-actress Elizabeth Hurley, designer Stella McCartney, and super-wealthy artist Damien Hirst are all Oxfordshire enthusiasts too – while thespian Hugh Grant has long been believed to have a country hideaway there.
It is easy to see why Jilly Cooper’s raunchy novel Rivals, recently adapted for television, was set in the glamorous Cotswolds.
And it is easy to see Ms DeGeneres fitting right in. Her presence could even tempt former neighbour the Duchess of Sussex back across the Atlantic to join her for a drink at Soho Farmhouse, the Oxfordshire outpost of trendy private members’ club Soho House.
Particularly if Prince Harry fancies catching up with his father the King, whose long-favourite country home, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, lies within the Cotswolds.
