Ellen DeGeneres is accused of causing a 2023 car collision in California, according to a new lawsuit.
The former talk show host, who moved to the British countryside last year, is being sued for negligence.
In court documents obtained by multiple outlets, a woman claims that on October 16, 2023, DeGeneres, 67, ran through a stop sign while driving in Santa Barbara County and “t-boned” her car.
DeGeneres’s lawyer did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, seen by People magazine, the “intersection [where the incident occurred] is controlled by stop signs in all directions.”
The plaintiff claims she stopped at the intersection and “made sure there were no other vehicles” before driving forward; however, she claims DeGeneres then “suddenly and without any warning” collided into her vehicle.
“Ellen DeGeneres entered the intersection without stopping at the stop sign,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit further accuses the comedian of exhibiting “negligent conduct [that] fell below the standard of care of a reasonable person,” adding that DeGeneres “negligently caused, or contributed to causing plaintiff's vehicle to be collided with by the defendants' vehicle.”
The woman says she has suffered “multiple serious personal injuries and damages” as a result.
The woman says she has lost wages and incurred hospital and medical expenses, in addition to “loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress and anxiety.” She is suing DeGeneres for general negligence and seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory damages.
After her long-running eponymous talk show ended in 2022 following allegations of a toxic workplace environment, DeGeneres went on a final comedy tour around the U.S., which ended in August that year. Shortly after that, she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, bought what DeGeneres described as a “part-time house” in the Cotswolds, where they intended to spend around four months a year.
However, the couple made the move permanent in November last year, around the time Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election.
In July, DeGeneres confirmed their decision was influenced by Trump’s victory. “Yes. We got here the day before the election 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,’” she said.
“We’re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty,” she added of her new life in rural England. “The villages and the towns and the architecture — everything you see is charming, and it’s just a simpler way of life. It’s clean. Everything here is just better — the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.”
