Ellen DeGeneres reportedly bought a $27 million California mansion — just 14 months after she supposedly fled to the UK in a freakout over Donald Trump’s return as president.
But an insider told People that DeGeneres isn’t moving back to the United States, but will be splitting her time between Montecito, California and the United Kingdom.
“She’s not moving back to the US but will continue to split her time between both the UK and Montecito,” the insider said.
The comedian had purchased a $14 million farmhouse in Cotswolds, England, about a 100-mile drive northwest of London in June 2024 several months after President Trump retook office after a four-year absence.
She later moved from that residence to a different glass-walled mansion in the same town in order to accommodate wife Portia de Rossi’s horses.
Despite DeGeneres’ public comments about leaving the US, a real estate source told People that the 68-year-old former TV show host and her actor wife have been “missing the California weather and horse scene,” since moving across the pond.
“Portia loves polo and her horses,” they added.
DeGeneres was spotted shopping for a Montecito home late last month on the same day she was supposed to be participating in the “no work, no school, no shopping” movement in protest of ICE.
Locals in the Cotswolds area told People that they haven’t seen DeGeneres “in ages” and that she hadn’t been in a local pub for “several months.” But a different source said DeGeneres had been spotted frequently in the village over the summer.
DeGeneres confirmed in July 2025 that her move to the UK was motivated by Trump’s election.
She told a crowd at Cheltenham’s Everyman theater that they “got here the day before the election,” DeGeneres recalled, “and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in.’ … And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.’ ”
At the time, she said life there was “absolutely beautiful.”
The former “Ellen” host is fond of flipping houses for a profit and is a real estate aficionado. She reportedly tried to sell her original UK farmhouse for $30 million, but has been unsuccessful. The Daily Mail reported the house is close to selling after she slashed several million off her original price.
DeGeneres has remained politically active, saying last month that she was “sorry” for the Minneapolis ICE surge.
“I just wanted to say I am so sorry for what is happening in Minneapolis and our country, really, but specifically Minneapolis right now,” DeGeneres said in a video. “Because it’s where I shot my last stand-up special, and everybody there couldn’t have been more lovely.”
