Ellen DeGeneres Gets the Last Laugh, Receives Major Good News Despite Talk Show Scandal
Amid the controversies and scandals surrounding her long-running daytime talk show, Ellen DeGeneres remains one of the world's highest-paid celebrities.
Forbes recently released its annual top Celebrity 100 list, which shows Kylie Jenner on the top spot with a whopping $590 million and a net worth of $900 million. She was followed by her brother-in-law and presidential hopeful Kanye West with $170 million and a net worth of staggering $1.3 billion.
According to the business magazine, a big chunk of Jenner's earnings was from her beauty line Kylie Cosmetics, while most of the Grammy Award winner's income for this year was from his Yeezy brand deal with Adidas.
Meanwhile, the third spot belonged to Swiss professional tennis player Roger Federer, who is now considered the "world's highest-paid athlete" with $106.3M -- all thanks to his lucrative endorsement deals.
The fourth and fifth rank was also owned by famous athletes and football superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, with $105 and $104 million, respectively.
Ellen DeGeneres Lands on No. 12
On the other hand, it appears that the recent negative publicity of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" did not affect Ellen's image at all after she landed on the 12 spot of the highest paid celebrities 2020.
The Primetime Emmy winner's rank was next to former TV personality and conservative political commentator Rush Hudson Limbaugh III. She even surpassed renowned sports analyst William Simmons and Grammy Hall of Famer Elton John.
As cited by Forbes, the 63-year-old comedian earned $84 million this 2020. She has a net worth of $490 million, per celebritynetworth.com.
In 2019, the controversial talk show host was at No. 22 with an annual income of $80.5 million and an estimated net worth of $330 million.
Furthermore, the Louisiana-born comedian made history after she was hailed as the first woman to receive $20 million for a Netflix stand-up special for her 2003 show "Relatable."
Ellen DeGeneres in Hot Waters
Over the past few months, the award-winning host has been plagued by controversies and scandals. Aside from comments about her mean personality, there have also been accusations from her former staffers regarding the toxic workplace, racism and sexual misconduct happening in her namesake show.
Last July, Buzzfeed News spoke to one current and 10 ex-employees who revealed the "problematic moments" in "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
"They said they were fired after taking medical leave or bereavement days to attend family funerals. One employee, who claims she was fed up with comments about her race, essentially walked off the job. Others said they were also instructed by their direct managers to not speak to DeGeneres if they saw her around the office," the outlet cited.
Following this, Variety noted that the bubbly daytime talk show was placed under internal investigation due to various complaints about the "toxic" work environment.
This prompted the host to address the issue, sending an emotional apology to her employees as she took responsibility and vowed to "ensure that this does not happen again."
