Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi flippin’ love Montecito.
They do. They love it so much they have reportedly owned and/or flipped at least 21 properties there. Nevertheless, they are ditching Santa Barbara County.
The ex-Montecitans are now expats after the reelection of a certain ex-president, the Wrap reports. DeGeneres and De Rossi are now at home in the U.K.
The pair are voracious home buyers. They have bought and sold a number of properties around L.A., yet the Santa Barbara area was a particular favorite.
Site Line, which keeps an eye on upscale real estate in those parts, said in February that DeGeneres and De Rossi had spent at least $350 million since 2006 on Santa Barbara-area manses.
They couldn’t be budged from Montecito even by extreme flooding. DeGeneres posted video of the surging waters behind her home in January 2023, which arrived on the five-year anniversary of deadly mudslides in the area.
But apparently President-elect Donald Trump retaking the White House reins is a different level of disaster for the 66-year-old comedian and her actor wife, 51. Hence the packing up and moving to rural England.
How did they pull it off so quickly after Nov. 5? The answer, per TMZ, is they didn’t. They bought their new place, about two hours out of London, before the election, the site said, then decided to “get the hell out” after Trump won. Apparently they haven’t even decided how much to ask on their Montecito home.
Still, this move could be an empowering one for DeGeneres. She’s leaving the U.S. by choice — not being kicked out.
“I got kicked out of show business,” she jokes in her Netflix special, “For Your Approval,” which premiered on the streaming service in late September. “The ‘Be kind’ girl wasn’t kind.”
DeGeneres was referring to the controversy that erupted around allegations of a toxic culture on the set of her long-running talk show, “Ellen.” She had closed each “Ellen DeGeneres Show” by telling viewers, “Be kind to one another.”
“Had I ended my show by saying, ‘Go f— yourselves,’ people would have been pleasantly surprised to find out I’m kind.”
During an L.A. stand-up set in April, DeGeneres admitted that the scandal had left its mark, according to Rolling Stone. There was a “toll on my ego and my self-esteem,” she said, noting the “extremes in this business” of being either idolized or hated.
Perhaps living in the Cotswolds will help DeGeneres to heal.
Flipping castles might be therapeutic.