Everything you need to know about Ellen DeGeneres’s huge net worth

Ellen DeGeneres has built herself a TV talk-show empire. As of 2020, Ellen has amassed a net worth estimated at $330 million, making her one of America’s richest self-made women. 

Ellen started out as a comedian in New Orleans and received a starring role in her own sitcom, also called Ellen, in 1994. After Ellen came out 1997 she found it difficult to secure work. When she was asked to voice the role of Dory in Finding Nemo, she finally began making a more lucrative income. 

Then in 2003, The Ellen DeGeneres Show premiered and the talk-show continued to grow until by 2017 Ellen was earning around $50 million a year, putting her among the highest paid TV hosts. Ellen’s net worth isn’t only due to her TV career but to many projects she’s had over the years. Here’s a look at the side hustles that got Ellen to a multi-millionaire status. 

Growing an empire 

More than half of what Ellen earns yearly comes from The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on top of her salary, Ellen receives sixty percent of advertising & product placement fees. Ellen supplements her millions with profits from her own production company, A Very Good Production. 

Over the years Ellen has made lucrative deals with brands like CoverGirl, JCPenney, and American Express. She’s also published several books, hosted the Oscars, and launched her own home goods & clothing brand which all helped her rake in the dollar bills. 

Along with her talk show, Ellen has built a storm digital presence with Ellen Digital Ventures which takes on her video hub, Ellentube & and her iPhone game Heads Up!. In 2016, Ellen went further into the digital world and in collaboration with Warner Bros. launched Ellen Digital Network. In 2018, Ellen also received $20 million from Netflix for an exclusive stand-up special. 

A flipping fortune

Ellen began to increase her wealth by buying & flipping houses, a hobby she shares with her wife Portia. Since 2003 the couple have flipped nearly twenty luxury homes. The first house Ellen ever bought & sold was a $6 million house in the Hollywood Hills that was later sold for $9 million to Will Ferrell in 2006. 

Ellen has spent around $145 million on house flipping and has flipped homes like the twenty-six acre compound where Kim Kardashian married Chris Humphries. She also rented a property to Nick Jonas, a house she bought & sold twice, letting it go for around $10 million each time. 

Ellen mentioned in an interview with Architectural Digest that, “The first thing I did when I made money was buy a house.” Ellen noted her reasons for growing a real estate business on The TODAY Show as stemming from the fact she grew up in small apartments with very little money. Ellen has said, “Now, I just buy as many houses as I can.” 

Spending the spoils 

Ellens spends her fortune on many luxuries such as lavish vacations in places like England, Africa, and Italy. Ellen has also been seen with Portia attending the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. 

The TV show host has a taste for luxury cars and owns a collection of sports cars from Porsches to Ferraris. Ellen also likes to shower Portia with presents like a silver Lamborghini as well as monthly gifts of jewellery & clothes. Ellen also enjoys spoiling the four dogs & three cats she has at home. 

Ellen has gone on to earn $80.5 million in 2019 which according to Forbes makes her the twenty-second highest paid celebrity and the highest paid comedian. Because she grew up poor Ellen decided she would do whatever she wanted with her newfound wealth. She said on her show that it was because, “I know there is an abundance and I will always have enough.”