From sunny Montecito, California, to the very cold Cotswolds in England, it is a long way.
But that is what American star Ellen DeGeneres, who is a big fan of Democrats, was said to be planning this week after Donald Trump was re-elected as Republican president.
It may seem like an odd choice for a woman who has made a lot of money from hosting a popular daytime talk show on the other side of the Atlantic, but it is interesting because it is the exact opposite of what one of her friends did.
To explain, Ms. DeGeneres, 66, is friendly with the Duchess of Sussex. The Duchess and her husband, Prince Harry, used to live in the heart of the Cotswolds before they made headlines by leaving Britain to live in Montecito.
The TV star was friends with Meghan, her neighbor in California, and she persuaded the split royal to adopt a labrador-German shepherd mix when they ran into each other at a dog shelter nearby.
Miss DeGeneres had been to see the Duke and Duchess at Frogmore Cottage, their home in Windsor, when they were still living in Britain. She even helped feed their young son Archie.
The Sussex family is staying put in sunny California, but Miss DeGeneres and her 51-year-old Australian actress wife Portia de Rossi are said to have already bought a house in the Cotswolds and are getting ready to sell their huge estate in Montecito.
American sources say the two are “very disappointed” with Mr. Trump’s win and want to “get the hell out” of America and “never return.”
“Ellen has fallen in love with the house in the Cotswolds,” said one friend. She wants to buy a house in the area and often goes to see her famous friends.
“A house in the Cotswolds has become a sign of wealth among celebrities, and Ellen wanted to join the group.”
But it is still not clear how she will fit in with the people of the Cotswolds.
When told that she was moving in, controversial TV host Piers Morgan responded with his usual bluntness, saying yesterday, “OMG…no!”
But Ms. DeGeneres has already done test runs in the Cotswolds and has dealt with problems in the past and found a way to solve them.
Some parts of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire are in this pretty hilly rural area. It has become a popular spot for British celebrities in recent years, and it is only two hours’ drive from London.
The rural branch of the exclusive private members’ club Soho House is right in the middle of the social scene. It is close to the pretty thatched-cottage honeyed stone village of Great Tew, Oxfordshire.
David and Victoria Beckham’s country home is not far away in the opposite direction from Soho House. It is made up of three barns that were converted at great cost and are made of the typical honey-colored stone found in the Cotswolds.
It may seem like Ms. DeGeneres’s “ethical veganism” goes against the views of some Cotswolds farmers, but she has recently been staying at the home of Jeremy Clarkson, a TV host who used to be a farmer and loves meat.
The American TV host and her wife, who played roles in Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, were filmed this week at Clarkson’s pub in the Cotswolds, The Farmer’s Dog, with pop star James Blunt, who used to be an Army officer.
And Ms. DeGeneres had been to Oxfordshire before for other events. A year ago, she was seen at a party at a stately home there that was built in the 17th century, sharing a DJ booth with Luther star Idris Elba.
The news of her plans to move here comes 30 years after her comedy show Ellen, which aired on Channel 4 in Britain, made her famous there.
The New Orleans native got her start in show business by doing stand-up comedy in clubs. In her first show, which was also named after her, she played herself as a young, single bookshop worker with a group of friends in what became a hit sitcom.
That hit stopped a year after Ms. DeGeneres came out as a lesbian, which shocked her mother but not all of her friends.
She made her big news on a show hosted by Oprah Winfrey, just like her future friend Meghan did in an interview where she talked about her and Harry’s decision to leave Britain.
But Disney was the show is main producer, and in the 1990s, when parents were more likely to be strict, parental warnings started to appear before each broadcast. Eventually, the show was canceled.
But six years later, Ms. DeGeneres became famous again.
She did the voice of the forgetful fish Dory in the hit animated movie Finding Nemo. With her new hit TV show, Ellen DeGeneres, she became a major star in the entertainment industry.
It made her a huge fortuneāabout Ā£60 million a yearāand she became friends with Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Barack Obama, the first Democrat to become president. In 2016, Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Ms. DeGeneres was the queen of daytime TV for years, pulling pranks on troubled pop star Britney Spears in a shopping mall. Her reign ended two years ago after a scandal over bullying allegedly happening behind the scenes.
The Duchess of Sussex was accused of bullying Royal staff in Britain, but these claims have been strongly denied. Similarly, Ms. DeGeneres was said to have led a “toxic workplace” behind the scenes of her show, which was also widely reported.
36 TV workers said that producers fired one worker for taking time off for a funeral and told visitors not to talk to the show is host. Is this true?
After an internal report found “deficiencies related to the show is day-to-day management,” Ms. DeGeneres finally said sorry to her team. Ratings dropped from more than 4 million viewers to just over 1 million.
The irony was even stronger when you consider that at the end of every episode, she told viewers, “Be kind to each other.”
After the storm of bullying in May 2021, Ms. Degeneres said her show would be ending the next year. She later joked that she had been “kicked out of show business.”
She had also said, “I need something new to push me.”
And since she no longer has a day job and does not have to worry about money, friends say that the election of Mr. Trump, who is a Hollywood liberal’s worst nightmare, made her decide to leave the United States.
She might have more beers at Clarkson’s pub, and she might also run into other Cotswolds homeowners, like supermodel Kate Moss.
Star Trek and Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart, model-turned-actress Elizabeth Hurley, designer Stella McCartney, and super-rich artist Damien Hirst are all fans of Oxfordshire. Hugh Grant, a playwright, is also said to have a country hideaway there.
It is easy to see why the racy novel Rivals by Jilly Cooper, which was recently made into a TV show, was set in the beautiful Cotswolds.
It is easy to see how Ms. DeGeneres would fit in. The Duchess of Sussex, who used to live next door, might even be tempted to cross the Atlantic to join her for a drink at Soho Farmhouse, which is the Oxfordshire branch of the popular private members’ club Soho House.
Particularly if Prince Harry fancies catching up with his father the King, whose long-favourite country home, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, lies within the Cotswolds .