Ellen DeGeneres talks of the tragic loss of her girlfriend in an accident and how it changed her life!

Updated On March 18, 2024 | Published By: shahid | In Divorce , Relationship

American comedian Ellen DeGeneres is famous for her humor sense but like other humans, she also has her serious and sad side.

Update: Ellen married Portia de Rossi on 16th August 2008. However, the rumors are that Ellen and Portia are getting divorced.

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The recent disclosure

She recently opened up about a past tragedy that changed her life forever. She was talking about her former girlfriend’s death. Similarly, she recalled:

“My girlfriend was killed in a car accident when I was 20 years old, And I wasn’t doing comedy.”

Ellen was working as a waitress in New Orleans at that time. Ellen’s girlfriend had a night out watching Ellen’s brother performing on stage with his band. On the way back, she died in a violent car accident.

The TV host had felt guilty since she had driven by the crash site and was unaware that it was her girlfriend in the mangled car. She said:

“I found out the next morning, That, of course, made me feel like I should have stopped. A lot of guilt.”

She had made this emotional revelation to the Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard podcast.

More on this relationship

Ellen also mentioned that their relationship had gone sour but their love had not yet died. She said:

“We had fought a lot, I was planning on moving back in. I was just trying to teach her a lesson.”

The impact of this sudden loss was so much on Ellen that she started rethinking life. She said:

“It made me realize how easily you can lose somebody, It shifted my entire focus.”

The television presenter went on to tell Shepard:

“I was living with her, and when she was killed, I couldn’t afford to live where we were living together, So, I moved into this tiny little basement apartment that I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor infested with fleas. I thought, Why is this beautiful, 21-year-old girl gone and fleas are here? And 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.”

She wrote down a conversation with God and presented it on The Tonight Show starring, Johnny Carson. Her ‘Phone call to God’ on The Tonight Show launched her career.

More about Ellen’s late girlfriend

In a 1997 People article, the girlfriend’s name was said to be Kathy ‘Kat’ Perkoff. Her sister says that Kat was a very creative person and was a poet who was working in a bar in the French Quarter.

She said:

“Ellen and Kat were two very creative people, crazy and young and very much in love… Ellen had a good influence on her — she was stabilizing and helped her focus on her art.”

DeGeneres had briefly also talked about her girlfriend on Oprah’s Master Class in 2015. It was said that Kat was trying to make up with Ellen but she appeared adamant at that time. And Kat died soon after.

She had said at that time:

“We had been living together at the time. My brother’s band was performing. We had broken up — we had fought a lot — [and] she was trying to get me to come back home. I acted like I couldn’t hear her because the music was too loud.”

She said:

“That of course made me feel like I should have gone home with her that night, She wouldn’t have been with that person [who was driving]. I should have stopped. … All kinds of things. A lot of guilt. I think it made me realize how fragile and how easily you can lose somebody. Literally in an instant she just was gone. It was really hard, but it shifted my entire focus and my life.”

Also read Will The Ellen DeGeneres Show become another #MeToo scandal amidst allegations of a toxic work environment and sexual misconduct!

Short bio on Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. Ellen was starred in the sitcom Ellen.

She is the host of an Emmy-winning Syndicated TV talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

She is best known to young audiences as the voice of the endearing but absent-minded fish Dory in the blockbuster animated hit Finding Nemo. More bio…

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