'Ellen DeGeneres Show' DJ speaks out on claims of toxic workplace
The house DJ of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, has broken his silence to support the daytime talk show.
The Warner Bros TV series is currently being investigated following multiple allegations of a “toxic work environment”.
But tWitch, 37, told Us Weekly: "We can’t speak too much legally about it, but I’ll say this, there’s been love.
"Obviously there’s some things to address, but from my standpoint and from countless others, there’s been love."
Read more: Ellen DeGeneres responds to criticism for sitting with George W. Bush at match
"I’ll just leave it at that until there’s a time where we can address more publicly. There’s been love and there'll will continue to be love."
A number of staff on the daytime talk show recently spoke out anonymously to BuzzFeed about their experiences of intimidation and racism, and in response WarnerMedia has launched an internal investigation.
No specific claims were made against DeGeneres, although some staff claimed they were told not to speak to the TV presenter and comedian if she was in the office.
Outspoken US radio DJ Howard Stern has said his advice to 62-year-old DeGeneres is to change her whole image and just behave like a “pr**k” in public from now on.
Speaking on his SiriusXM’s Howard Stern Show, he said: “I’d go on the air and be a son of a b***h. People would come on and [I would] go, ‘F*** you.’ Just be a pr**k.
“So you think I’m a pr**k? I’m going to show you exactly…”
Shock jock Stern, a longterm friend of DeGeneres, married his wife Beth on the talk show in 2019.
In 2010, he said: “Ellen DeGeneres is such a jerk. She’s such a foul piece of garbage, people who work with her know. She’s a tyrant ogre, this whole nice girl image is a lot of horses**t fakery.”
The Ellen Degeneres Show has been on the air since 2013 and has won 61 Daytime Emmy Awards and 17 People's Choice Awards. tWitch joined the show in 2014.
In 2019, DeGeneres confirmed the programme had been renewed for three more years.
Read more: Ellen show producers respond to cancellation rumours
Recent allegations included employees being fired after taking medical leave or bereavement days, facing microaggressions and a culture of bullying and favouritism by executive producers.
Earlier this month Telepictures denied rumours the show was set to be cancelled.
DeGeneres’s former security guard Tom Majercak recently told Fox News the star was “very cold” and “false”, claiming that when he worked with her she didn’t engage at all beyond a “side glance out of her eye”.
