‘Why is this beautiful girl gone?’: Ellen DeGeneres reveals heartbreak over losing girlfriend
Ellen with her wife, Portia de Rossi
Ellen DeGeneres has revealed the heartbreak she experienced after losing the girlfriend she had when she was 20-years-old.
The star spoke on the podcast Armchair Expert about the tragedy.
She explained that the girlfriend was killed in a car accident, sparking a series of unfortunate events.
“My girlfriend was killed in a car accident when I was 20 years old. I wasn’t doing comedy, I think I was probably waitressing some place at the time I was living with her,” she told the podcast host, Dax Shepard.
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Ellen went on to explain that after her girlfriend was killed, she could no longer afford to live in the apartment they shared together.
“I moved into this tiny basement apartment. “I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor that was infested with fleas [and] thought: ‘Why is this beautiful, 21-year-old girl gone and fleas are here?’.”
Despite the horror of the tragedy, her girlfriend’s death subsequently led to her career in stand-up comedy.
Ellen was writing poetry and songs at the time but decided to turn to comedy for solace.
She came up with the sketch which eventually landed her an invite on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
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“I just thought it would be amazing if we could pick up the phone and call up God and ask questions and actually get an answer.
“So I started writing. It just unfolded. I wrote the entire thing. When I finished I read it and thought ‘oh my god, that’s hilarious’,” she said.
The performed the sketch on Carson’s show and was invited onto his couch after performing, which was a golden ticket in any budding stand-up comedians career.
Ellen was the first female comedian to be invited to sit on his couch.
