Fans call out ‘disrespectful’ Ellen DeGeneres moment with Taylor Swift: "She’s begging her to stop..."
Ellen DeGeneres can go to extreme lengths to get some juicy gossip from her celebrity guests! In a 2013 episode of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show', the host was joined by 14-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift. During her appearance, Swift’s love life became the focus as DeGeneres repeatedly asked about her rumored relationship with Zac Efron. In a resurfaced clip from the interview, DeGeneres can be seen digging deep into the personal life of the renowned singer. Then, DeGeneres even affirmed that Swift was dating Efron which she quickly denied.
According to Unilad, the talk show host, "You were here with your boyfriend Zac Efron last time," to which the 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer responded, "We actually never dated. I don't know, I haven't talked to him in a while because we didn't date." DeGeneres doubled down, saying, "Yes, you did," as the audience laughed. Swift appeared annoyed, but DeGeneres continued pressing her about her personal life. During the episode, DeGeneres continued to mention that Swift dated Efron in real life. Soon after, DeGeneres showed a few photos of the duo to the audience. In the pictures shared, Swift can be seen posing alongside several celebrities.
DeGeneres asked Swift to ring a bell if she had dated any of the men shown on screen. DeGeneres claimed she was trying to uncover the inspiration behind 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'. When Swift refused to ring the bell, DeGeneres took matters into her own hands and rang it for every photograph.
Soon after, fans called out DeGeneres for disrespecting the boundaries of an interviewee and bullying Swift. One social media user wrote, “You can see she felt uncomfortable and clearly didn’t want to play the game.. she said 'I do not want to'. Like 3x and ugh this was horrible to watch honestly.. I felt bad for her.” Another user chimed in, "I'm not really a fan of Taylor but that's really mean. I feel bad for her. I'd be so embarrassed in her shoes.” Followed by a third user who penned, “Why is this not being considered as bullying in a serious way?” Model Emily Ratajkowski reacted to the resurfaced clip, calling it 'f**ked up' and noting, "She’s literally begging her to stop."
Before this, Swift and Efron appeared together in an episode of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show.' In the episode, Swift revealed that she had been teaching guitar to Efron, especially the chords of 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster The People. These two changed the lyrics of the song to talk about their personal experiences on the talk show. "Ellen works a long day. Giving weird interviews in a slick, cool sweater. And it gets kind of weird, yeah, callin' us out, like we're boyfriend and girlfriend. But it's not just 'cause we're just sitting here and we got cat videos and dance on Betty White and stuff. And it's always gonna be weird - 'Cause this song is all about Ellen and Swift, yeah," Efron sang.
Swift went on to sing about how she appeared on the talk show eight times and was often made to be scared, and asked questions about her dating life. During the chorus, Swift subtly stated how "really weird it is every time" they both come on the show - "all because of Ellen." These instances saw the light of day years before Ellen was hit with toxic workplace allegations. Ultimately, the controversy marked the end of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' in 2022.