Ellen DeGeneres debuts gray hair transformation as she returns to California
Ellen DeGeneres seems to be making her way through the color wheel when it comes to her hair.
The 66-year-old retired talk show host was spotted with a fresh cut and gray tone on January 14 in Montecito, California, just over 90 miles away from the Los Angeles wildfires.
In photos captured by paparazzi and published by E! News, DeGeneres is seen sporting skinny blue jeans, a dark gray pullover sweater, a pair of Stan Smith sneakers, and aviator sunglasses.
Though her street style outfit wasn’t unusual for the comedian, her gray color was a surprising change since she’d just ditched her recognizable blonde hair to a dark brown back in November 2024.
The former sitcom lead was seen spending time as a brunette in an Instagram video posted by singer Natalie Imbruglia. DeGeneres, her wife Portia de Rossi, and the “Wrong Impression” artist were out enjoying live music at Jeremy Clarkson’s pub in Burford, England.
DeGeneres’s trip back to California comes as a shock since she was thought to have moved across the pond to the Cotswolds region with her partner after the U.S. presidential elections.
While DeGeneres has yet to confirm whether she and de Rossi are permanently living in the U.K., she previously hinted at her desire to escape.
During a July 2024 standup in Santa Rosa, California, the on-screen star told the crowd: “This is the last time you’re going to see me. After my Netflix special, I’m done.”
DeGeneres’s eagerness to stay out of the public eye comes after she was hit with allegations of fostering a toxic workplace throughout her eponymous talk show’s 19-season stint.
Two years before the show’s conclusion in May 2022, Buzzfeed News published a report detailing the accounts of several people who had either worked for DeGeneres on the show or were still employed by her.
It wasn’t until May 2021 that DeGenres finally spoke out to address the claims against her and the show’s workplace. Speaking to Savannah Gutherie on Today, DeGeneres said: “I really didn’t understand it; I still don’t understand it. It was too orchestrated; it was too coordinated.”
The actor later addressed the controversy in her Netflix show, For Your Approval, which released on the streaming service in September 2024.
“I got kicked out of show business. You can’t be mean and be in show business. No, they’ll kick you out. No mean people in show business,” she said.
