Ellen DeGeneres was celebrated by many during her historic coming out in 1997 but now the talk show host is opening up about the hardships she faced.
In a new interview with Ad Week, DeGeneres reveals she received death threats including a bomb threat.
“When I came out, I had death threats and there was a bomb threat, but they misjudged the time of the taping,” DeGeneres says. “We had already finished, and thank God.”
DeGeneres came out on the cover of Time in 1997 followed by her character coming out on her sitcom “Ellen.” The sitcom was canceled one year later.
She says she never thought the moment would lead to the show’s cancellation.
“I knew there would be people that didn’t like it, but I didn’t realize my show would be canceled,” she says. “I just thought, ‘It’s going to be interesting.’ “
“The last season we did was a great season, and unfortunately nobody saw it because it was not advertised. It was purposely not advertised by ABC and Disney because they just wanted to hold their hands up to advertisers and say we’re not promoting it, we’re not doing this. And I get it. It’s a business, and I understand that. And so everybody had their reasons, and unfortunately, I was just blindsided,” she went on.
