Comedian and former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres says she left the US, home of "so much hate," because of President Trump. But at Spectator World, Kara Kennedy suggests the woman, "celebrated, empowered and massively enriched" by American culture until allegations that she ran a toxic workplace and wasn't nearly so kind as she appeared on screen, was actually running away from her own embarrassment—claims of her as "a mean girl" continue to surface—and "a country that had fallen out of love with her."
The DeGeneres of southern England's Cotswolds, "where celebrities, rockstars and former politicians play out their fantasies of rural living," is essentially a rebrand, argues Kennedy, but not a good one. While she "casts herself as a sort of progressive refugee, someone forced abroad by the rising tides of American bigotry," her actions show a "particularly smug brand of disengagement," Kennedy writes. "For elites like DeGeneres, civic duty is optional. If things don't go your way, there's always another country to buy into."
Emma Brockes makes a similar argument at the Guardian, reflecting on DeGeneres' recent comments about having to swap one Cotsworlds mansion for another with a stable and pastures because wife Portia de Rossi "couldn't live without her horses." This reflects "the extraordinary tone deafness that only high net-worth individuals can hit when trying to share in a common experience," writes Brockes. While she understands why members of communities targeted by Trump would want to move away, she notes it must be nice for "those so wealthy they can go on holiday and seemingly decide, on a whim, to stay for ever."
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