‘Scared’: Ellen DeGeneres reveals huge secret about her Hollywood pals

During her last ever stand-up tour, the infamous former chat show host joked that she had been “kicked out of show business twice” - the first time being when she came out as gay in 1997.

In a new interview, one of the first she’s done since leaving show business and moving to the countryside in the UK, DeGeneres opened up about how little she feels the entertainment industry has evolved since she was first shunned.

“If it was [better], all these other people that are actors and actresses that I know they’re gay, they’d be out, but they’re not, because it’s still a problem,” she said during an appearance at Sunday at the Everyman. “People are still scared.”

She added that it’s “a really hard decision” that doesn’t suit everyone, adding that things are better today “in some ways” but not others.

DeGeneres went on to reference a controversial move by the Southern Baptist Convention to endorse the reversal of a Supreme Court case allowing same-sex marriage.

At the time of writing, nine states in the US have introduced bills that could do the same while under the rule of President Donald Trump.

“The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage,” she said. “They’re trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we’re going to get married here.”

“I wish we were at a place where it was not scary for people to be who they are. I wish that we lived in a society where everybody could accept other people and their differences.

“So until we’re there, I think there’s a hard place to say we have huge progress.”

Elsewhere in the interview, DeGeneres confessed that she has already grown a little “bored” of her new life.

When quizzed if she would ever consider launching a chat show in the UK, she responded: “I mean, I wish it did, because I would do the same thing here. I would love to do that again, but I just feel like people are watching on their phones, or people aren’t really paying attention as much to televisions, because we’re so inundated with information and entertainment.”

She added that while she didn’t know what she would do in the future, one thing was for sure: She’d pick her next move “very carefully”.

“I just don’t know what that is yet,” added the star. “I want to have fun, I want to do something. I do like my chickens but I’m a little bit bored.”