Ellen DeGeneres Turns Heads After Revealing Her Triple Diagnosis
Aging may be universal, but Ellen DeGeneres is making headlines for the way she’s talking about it.
The longtime comedian, now 66, used her final stand-up special on Netflix, For Your Approval, to disclose a series of medical diagnoses she received after stepping away from daytime television. DeGeneres told viewers she’s now been diagnosed with osteoporosis, arthritis, OCD and ADHD—conditions she says she didn’t even know she had until her life slowed down following the end of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
DeGeneres explained that the diagnoses came only after she left her talk-show empire in 2020, during the media firestorm over accusations claiming she fostered a “toxic” workplace environment. With the cameras off and time on her hands, she finally went to her doctors—and the results, she says, were eye-opening.
The former talk-show host said she learned she has “full-blown osteoporosis,” a condition that weakens the bones and increases the risk of fractures. She told the audience she discovered it after going through what she described as a “silly bone density test.”
She said she had been in therapy, trying to cope with the overwhelming hate directed at her. “It wasn’t exactly a typical case for a therapist.”
She admitted that when her therapist first mentioned OCD, she misunderstood the diagnosis. “I told her I was very organized and thought that was the ‘O,’” she mentioned. “I had no idea what OCD actually meant.”
DeGeneres explained that her religious upbringing—she was raised in Christian Science—meant her family rarely discussed illness or mental health. Looking back, she now realizes her father likely had OCD as well. “He checked everything—door locks, faucets, appliances—over and over. They say it can run in families.”