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Ellen DeGeneres Handles Her “Divorce”

Posted: February 17, 2014, 2:27 p.m.,
by Stefanie Dunlap.

It is easy to automatically believe magazine stories about celebrities to be true — especially when everybody is talking about them.

Recently, Ellen DeGeneres’ love life has been a hot topic. Ellen is usually not one to respond to tabloids, but how can a person remain silent when the whole world is discussing a divorce that never happened?

Because Ellen hosts a daily talk show, it was difficult for her to appear on television and not address the rumors. Most celebrities want their private lives to remain private, but Ellen came up with the perfect way to get people to stop talking about her “divorce.”

On Dec. 10, 2013, Ellen took a few minutes to address the recent rumors. She explained that she saw a tabloid in her hair salon with the headline “Ellen and Portia Marriage Crumbles.” She jokingly stated, “Oh, what happened? They seemed so happy. And then I was like, ‘Wait, I’m Ellen.’ And I should know if that was happening.”

Ellen decided to do what she does best — make jokes and dance. She explained that the only arguments she and Portia have are over who loves whom more, and whether or not they would let a kangaroo carry them in a pouch for a year. Ellen said yes, while Portia declined the kangaroo’s invitation.

Ellen went on to scrutinize tabloids and gossip magazines because they stated they received this information from a “good friend” or a “reliable source.” When in reality, what kind of “good friend” would talk about you to a tabloid? She summed it all up by dancing from one end of the studio to the other.

In public relations, it is important to know how to deal with a crisis. Remaining silent would have allowed the rumors to continue, but lashing out could have made the dancing fanatic look bad. The way Ellen handled this rumor was flawless. Discussing the rumor in a light and fun way, full of jokes, worked well for Ellen. She managed to stay true to herself and reveal the truth to her fans, without letting the rumors get to her.

As Ellen says, “It’s like if a tree fell in a forest and no one is around to hear it, who cares who wore it better?”

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    For starters, I really enjoyed this blog post! I watch E! News like it is CNN and most days I watch the Ellen DeGeneres Show. The headline to this blog shocked me. All I noticed was the word “divorce” and automatically I thought I had missed something. However, as I read the post I realized it was just a misunderstanding.
    At the end of the post Stefanie talked about how important it is to know how to deal with a crisis in public relations. Whether dealing with this crisis was DeGeneres’ idea or someone she hired I agree with Stefanie in that it was flawless. DeGeneres made people laugh and was able to announce her love to Portia, which both fixed the problem and eliminated the rumor.
    After reading this post I was still curious as to how DeGeneres handled her situation. I watched Jimmy Kimmel interview her, and again she used a humorous approach and jokingly said, “I read that we were getting divorce and I went and told Portia and boy was she sad.” After that she continued on to say how happy they were and that the tabloids were a lie.
    In this post it explains how DeGeneres’ “good friends” told to tabloids about the divorce, and I thought that was interesting. I can’t count the number of magazines I have read where they quote “close friends” or “family friends.” This just makes me wonder how common it is for celebrities to need public relations professionals to help them with crisis management.
    In the end, I still think DeGeneres handled this crisis very well and believe, while it may not work for everyone, humor was clearly the best way to have gone about this rumor.

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