Ellen DeGeneres is planning a new comedy special that she says will be her last.
The comedian and former “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” host, 66, will star in an hourlong comedy special on Netflix later this year, Deadline reported Monday.
The unnamed special will come more than five years after “Relatable,” DeGeneres’ first Netflix comedy special, which premiered in December 2018.
DeGeneres confirmed the news of the upcoming special on Instagram when she posted an image of Deadline’s story. “To answer the questions everyone is asking me — Yes, I’m going to talk about it. Yes this is my last special. Yes, Portia really is that pretty in real life,” she joked in her caption, referring to her wife, Portia de Rossi.
Though she didn’t specify what she meant by “talk about it,” it may have referred to the accusations of a toxic workplace at her daytime talk show, which ended in 2022.
The accusations were documented in a July 2020 BuzzFeed report, which featured current and former “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” staff members alleging they endured a culture of racism, fear and intimidation while working for the show.
The report prompted an internal investigation, and it was later announced that three of the show’s executive producers had “parted ways” with the program.
DeGeneres called the report and the backlash “devastating” while speaking to TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie in 2021 after announcing her decision to end her program after its 19th season.
“It started with attacks on me and attacking everything that I stand for and believe in and built my career around,” said the comedian, adding, “I am a kind person. I am a person who likes to make people happy.”
The Emmy winner told Savannah she had “no idea” problems existed behind the scenes of her show until she read the allegations “in the press.”
“I don’t know how I could have known when there’s 225 employees here and there are a lot of different buildings,” said DeGeneres. “Unless I actually stayed here until that last person goes home at night.
“It’s my name on the show, so clearly it affects me, and I have to be the one to stand up and say this can’t be tolerated,” she said.
DeGeneres, who has kept a lower profile since her talk show left the air, said she was “not bulletproof” and did not have “thick skin.”
“I’m extremely sensitive to the point of it’s not healthy how sensitive I am,” she said.
“When something is coming back at me that I know is not true, I guess I could take one or two of those shots, but four months in a row took a toll on me.”
