Actress Portia de Rossi says marrying Ellen DeGeneres changed their relationship.

The 40-year-old de Rossi, who will reprise the role of Lindsay Funke in Netflix's upcoming fourth season of Arrested Development, said marrying DeGeneres in 2008 also changed how others viewed their relationship.

“I'm pretty happy with my life, so whatever I'm doing professionally has to actually make it even better than it is right now,” de Rossi told Los Angeles Confidential. “We were together for four solid years before we got married, but the minute we said 'I do,' the minute we stood up in front of our parents and our friends and committed to each other, our relationship changed. I don't think people understand how important that little ceremony is and what it actually does to people. To my mother, instead of thinking of our relationship as a little bit less than my brother and his wife's relationship in some way, it made them instantly equal in her mind, and Ellen became her daughter rather than someone that I was with or dating. It just made it more like family, and our commitment to each other just strengthened instantly.”