Daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres
covers this month's issue of Good Housekeeping.
DeGeneres, the 59-year-old host of the
syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, came out gay in
a 1997 Time magazine cover and so did the character she played
on her ABC sitcom Ellen.
“The bullying I endured [in
Hollywood] after I came out made up for the lack of it during my
childhood,” DeGeneres
said.
“I moved to L.A., went into a severe
depression, started seeing a therapist and had to go on
antidepressants for the first time in my life. It was scary and
lonely. All I'd known for 30 years was work, and all of the sudden I
had nothing. Plus, I was mad. It didn't feel fair – I was the
same person everyone had always known.”
“Eventually I started meditating,
working out and writing again, and I slowly started to climb out of
it. I can't believe I came back from that point. I can't believe
where my life is now,” she added.
Considered one of the most powerful
women in Hollywood, DeGeneres says she has forgiven.
“Now, though, when I see those people
at functions, there's definitely an unspoken, 'I made a mistake,' on
their part and also an unspoken, 'I accept your apology,' on mine,”
DeGeneres said.