A bodyguard who looked after Ellen DeGeneres at the 2014 Academy Awards has spoken out about the talk show host, saying that the experience of working with her was “kind of demeaning.”
Bodyguard Tom Majercak said that he was hired to guard Ellen, her mother and her wife Portia de Rossi at the ceremony, which she was hosting, and at events before and after.
He told Fox News that he has worked with a number of high-profile clients but that he did not find the talk show host to be especially friendly.
“Ellen is the one person that I’ve been assigned to – and I’ve been assigned to quite a few celebrities – that has never taken the time to say hi to me,” he said.
He said that he and Portia de Rossi carried on a pleasant and friendly conversation but that things “started going negatively” when he spoke to the host. He continued:
“Ellen pretty much just gave me a side glance out of her eye and didn’t even say ‘hello,’ or ‘thank you for protecting my mother, my wife, and me. It was very cold and it was very sly and it was actually kind of demeaning in the way that she treats people other than those who are in her circle.”
He claimed that he was inspired to say something about his experience after seeing various stories about Ellen circulating online in recent months:
“It’s bugged me for years. I see this person come across as being very enlightened and positive and awesome and everybody loves her and is in awe and that’s really not the case when you meet her in person.”
Dutch beauty YouTuber Nikkie de Jager, otherwise known as NikkieTutorials, recently spoke about her own experience on Ellen’s show, calling her “cold and distant.”
Let’s also never forget this iconic interview with Dakota Johnson, in which the pair squared off about whether the hos was or was not invited to Johnson’s birthday party:
