What Heartbreaking Event Led Ellen To Pursue Comedy

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Who would have ever thought that behind the jokes and pranks is a past filled with shame and regret?

Transcript

00:00It shifted my entire focus and my life.

00:08We heard sirens behind us, so it had just happened.

00:12Nobody was there yet, you know.

00:14In an instant, she just was gone.

00:27I was living with so much shame.

00:30I had no money, I had no heat, no air, I had a mattress on the floor, and the apartment

00:36was infested with fleas.

00:50She was trying to get me to come back home.

00:52I acted like I couldn't hear her because the music was too loud.

00:55I was being really just dismissive of her.

00:59She had left before us, and as we were driving home, we saw a car, and it was split in two.

01:08We heard sirens behind us, so it had just happened.

01:12Nobody was there yet, and we just kept going.

01:16I found out the next morning that it was her in the car.

01:24That made me realize how fragile and how easily you can lose somebody.

01:35I just picked up a pen, and there were no, like, scratch out, start over.

01:40It just was written.

01:41It just, the whole thing came out, the whole conversation, the whole phone call.

01:45I said, I'm going to do this on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, at the time he was

01:49the king, and I'm going to be the first woman in the history of the show to be called over

01:53to sit down.

01:54Would you welcome Ellen DeGeneres.

01:55Ellen.

01:56To me, life is very precious.

01:57It's very special.

01:58We're here for such a short time.

01:59Wouldn't it be great if we could just pick up the phone and call up God and ask him these

02:00things?

02:01Yeah.

02:02Hi, God.

02:03This is Ellen.

02:04Hold on.

02:05Somebody's at the gate.

02:06Why do I have to be so ashamed?

02:25I mean, why can't I just say the truth?

02:27I mean, be who I am.

02:28I'm 35 years old.

02:29I thought that it was time for me to say I'm fine with who I am.

02:37I feel good about me.

02:38I'm not ashamed of who I am.

02:46I'm gay.

02:47I'm gay.

02:48I'm gay.

02:49I'm gay.

02:50I'm gay.

02:51I'm gay.

02:52I'm gay.

02:53I'm gay.

02:54I'm gay.

02:55I'm gay.

02:56I'm gay.

02:57I'm gay.

02:58I'm gay.

02:59I'm gay.

03:00I'm gay.

03:01I'm gay.

03:02I'm gay.

03:03I'm gay.

03:04I'm gay.

03:05Do you want to know I'm straight?

03:06I'm not out on the cover saying, yep, I'm straight.

03:07Nobody wants to know.

03:08Nobody cares.

03:09Why?

03:10Why?

03:11Because you don't have to fight for anyone to embrace you.

03:12The phone didn't ring for three years.

03:13I had no offers.

03:14Nobody wanted to touch me at all.

03:17The phone didn't ring for three years.

03:23I had no offers, nobody wanted to touch me at all.

03:33I remember the first letter I got where somebody said I saved their life, that they were going

03:37to kill themselves and that they didn't because of what I did.

04:06We can't let intolerance and ignorance take another kid's life.

04:10And I want anyone out there who feels different and alone to know that I know how you feel.

04:17Things will get easier, people's minds will change, and you should be alive to see it.

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