Was Ellen DeGeneres a young, mean bully? This man says she was

They say mean kids grow into mean adults, and for Ellen DeGeneres, this may be true about her younger self. As person after person makes new claims against the talk show host about her unkind behavior, a childhood acquaintance has now come forward with their own story.

Granted, Ellen was probably in her late teens, early 20s when this story took place, but that’s still old enough to understand being mean to an 11 year old is a bit immature. Ben Gravolet claims that when he was 11 and Ellen worked for his mom’s business, she bullied him relentlessly.

Bullying an 11 year old

As a kid, Gravolet would spend sick days or after school hours in his mom’s recruiting agency, and there he would be harassed by Ellen. Gravolet claims Ellen would pick on him for his weight, his clothes, his smarts, and even insulted his art skills. 

In a statement to DailyMailTV, Gravolet told them, “One incident stands out in my mind. I was sitting beside her desk. I was drawing, and she criticized the drawings. She said, ‘I guess that would look nice if you could draw.’” Gravolet looks back at that moment in particular, wondering, “Who takes pleasure in giving a child pain?”

Faking her way to the top

Over the years, like the rest of his hometown of New Orleans, Gravolet has watched Ellen DeGeneres go from rising comedian to America’s sweetheart. But unlike the rest of America, he wonders how Ellen got to the top pretending to be so nice. 

“As I watched her meteoric rise to fame, people would say how great she was and all I could think was she must be an incredible actor because she was one of the most vile people I’ve ever met in my life.” Gravolet commented. 

Like mother, like son

It’s not just Gravolet who feels this way. While his mother, Tana Robinson, didn’t know about Ellen DeGeneres’s treatment of her young son until now, she’s not surprised by her behavior. She found Ellen “extremely rude” to begin with.

“I think I probably fired her,” Robinson also told DailyMailTV. “Had I known that was going on, I’d have punched her and then fired her. A horrible person does that to an 11-year-old boy.” 

Does Ellen have anything to say for herself?

Similar to the rest of the mean claims, DeGeneres’s reps have yet to comment on these new claims. But this is a big claim, as the rest focus on DeGeneres post-fame. This incident happened even before she blew up as a comic, so if it turns out to be true, it could prove that Ellen DeGeneres has been mean her entire life.