Watch Ellen DeGeneres’ Emotional Tribute To Dead Father: 'He Had A Good Long Life'
Jan. 12 2018, Published 2:20 p.m. ET
Ellen DeGeneres took a moment during her show on Thursday to announce that her father, Elliot DeGeneres, died earlier this week at the age of 92. The talk show host praised her father for being a “kind” and “very accepting man” and spoke of how proud he was of her and her success in show business. Click through to see Ellen’s emotional tribute to her dad.
“Before we go to break, there’s something else I want to talk about,” Ellen began. “I mentioned yesterday when I was talking about all the mudslides that are going on in my community of Montecito, which is heartbreaking, I said that I had a lot going on in my life. In addition to what’s going on in Montecito, I lost my dad this week.”
“That is my dad, Elliot,” Ellen said as she shared this black and white photo with her audience. “That’s me when I was, I don’t know how old I was, but I do remember that picture.”
“He was 92 years old, he had a good long life, and he lived his life exactly how he wanted,” Ellen said. “He was Christian Science his entire life, he never had medicine his whole life — never went to a doctor. I never had a vaccination. We never had medicine growing up. And he lived to be 92.”
Ellen went on to share that her father “was very proud of me” and “loved the show.” “He was a kind man, very accepting man. There was not one bone of judgment in his body,” she said, adding that she believes she and her brother Vance “got our sense of humor from him.”
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Ellen also noted that they only went on one family vacation growing up, and it was to the Warner Bros. lot, where they took a tour. “And now, I work on the Warner Bros. lot and I have my own stage with my name on it. So he was really proud of that,” she said.
Ellen shared that she was able to talk to her father on the phone before he died and “say goodbye to him.” She said shortly after their talk, she was leaving the building, and there was a rainbow over her Warner Bros. studio.
“This looks photoshopped,” she said as she shared the picture of the rainbow. “This is what I saw after I talked to my dad and he died 10 minutes later after that. Pretty amazing…I got a rainbow before he died,” she said.
Watch Ellen’s emotional tribute to her father here. What do you think of Ellen’s tribute to her dad? Sound off in the comments below.