Ellen DeGeneres has candidly revealed her diagnoses of osteoporosis, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during her latest comedy special, “For Your Approval,” which premiered on Netflix this Tuesday.
The 66-year-old Emmy winner shared her health challenges while discussing the realities of ageing, particularly after leaving her long-running daytime talk show amid allegations of a toxic work environment in 2020.
In a humorous yet poignant moment, DeGeneres disclosed that she learned she has “full-on osteoporosis” after undergoing what she described as a “stupid bone density test.” “I don’t even know how I’m standing up right now,” she joked. “I’m like a human sandcastle.
I could disintegrate in the shower.” She also mentioned being diagnosed with arthritis after experiencing severe pain, expressing her surprise at the diagnosis: “I thought I tore a ligament or something, and I got an MRI, and they said, ‘No, it’s just arthritis.’”
Reflecting on her diagnosis, DeGeneres shared her struggles with ageing and the difficulty of being honest about it while maintaining a sense of coolness.
Additionally, she discussed her OCD and ADHD diagnoses, which came during therapy sessions aimed at helping her cope with the backlash she faced following the allegations against her. “I was in therapy for a while trying to deal with all the hatred that was coming at me,” she said, noting that it was an unusual situation for her therapist.
DeGeneres humorously recounted how she initially misunderstood the concept of OCD, associating it with being organised. “I may have OCD because a therapist said so, and I said, ‘Yes, I am very organised,’ because I thought that was the O. I didn’t know what OCD was.” She attributed her lack of discussion about mental health growing up to her upbringing in Christian Science, a religion that does not acknowledge diseases or disorders.
Looking back, she reflected on her father’s behaviours, suggesting he likely had OCD as well. “He would check the doorknob 15 times before we’d leave and unplug all the appliances before we left the house because lightning could strike and catch fire. They say it could be hereditary.”
DeGeneres then turned the conversation toward her wife, Portia de Rossi, asking whether she thought Ellen had OCD. De Rossi, 51, affirmed, “Yes, you do.”
In true DeGeneres fashion, she used her health challenges as material for humour, stating, “My ADD makes it hard to sit down and focus on anything at all. Do you know how hard it was for me to put this together? Of course, you don’t. Why would I ask that question? It’s hard for me to focus.”
She concluded her reflections with a comedic twist, saying, “So, I have ADD, I have OCD, I’m losing my memory. I think I’m well-adjusted because I obsess about things, but then I don’t have the attention span to stick with it, and I quickly forget what I was obsessing about in the first place. So, it takes me to being well-adjusted.”
DeGeneres’s openness about her health issues highlights the importance of discussing mental and physical well-being, even within the comedic context she’s known for.
