Back in May, we reported that a man who worked as a bodyguard for talk show host Ellen DeGeneres when she hosted the 2014 Academy Awards had spoken out to claim that she was rude. Now, it’s been revealed that producers of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” responded to this by holding an emergency “low morale” meeting with staffers.

One former employee told Buzzfeed News that producers went into panic mode after DeGeneres’ ex-bodyguard Thomas Majercak gave the bombshell interview.

“A current employee told BuzzFeed News that on May 1, the same day the story about the former bodyguard was published, executive producers took the rare move of holding an all-staff meeting over Zoom to address the negative stories and low morale,” Buzzfeed News reported.

Ten other former employees spoke to Buzzfeed for this report, and most of them backed up Majercak’s claims that DeGeneres was “cold” and “demeaning” to him when he worked for her.

“Ellen is the one person that I’ve been assigned to — and I’ve been assigned to quite a few celebrities — that has never taken the time to say hi to me,” Majercak said.

The ex-staffers opened up about their own negative experiences working on DeGeneres’ talk show.

“I think it is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to the show’s brand,” one former employee said. “They pull on people’s heartstrings; they do know that’s going to get likes and what people are going to go for, which is a positive message. But that’s not always reality.”

Another employee said that DeGeneres’ “‘be kind’ bulls–t” occurs “only” when cameras are rolling.

“It’s all for show,” the former staffer added.

Executive producers Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly, and Andy Lassner responded to Buzzfeed’s report with a statement in which they took responsibility for any hostile work environment on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

“Over the course of nearly two decades, 3,000 episodes, and employing over 1000 staff members, we have strived to create an open, safe, and inclusive work environment,” they said. “We are truly heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience. It’s not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us.”

“For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us,” the producers added. “We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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