Ellen DeGeneres appears tense as she steps out in Montecito after Rosie O’Donnell’s recent comments

Ellen Degeneres appeared tense as she stepped out in her Montecito neighborhood. 

The 63-year-old daytime television host was spotted walking to her car on Saturday accompanied by her wife Portia de Rossi, 48.

Ellen’s uneasy demeanor comes after Rosie O’Donnell’s recently commented on the controversy surrounding the end of The Ellen Degeneres Show.  

Degeneres donned a navy blue t-shirt, olive green pants and blue and green sneakers for the outing. She was also sporting a white baseball cap and a large silver watch.

She was toting a tan leather bag and had tucked a pair of aviator sunglasses with green lenses into the collar of her shirt.

The comedienne’s face appeared strained as she carried a bottle of water to her new $180k Porsche. Portia was seen getting into the car wearing pink three-quarter sleeve blouse with her long wavy hair falling over her shoulders.

Ellen checked her iPhone as she opened the door to her vehicle.  On Wednesday, Rosie spoke out about Ellen’s show concluding after 19 seasons. She suggested that the end of the talk show was ‘complicated’ amid claims that the comedienne had allowed a toxic workplace to develop.

The 59-year-old actress and former talk show host opined on Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show that Ellen’s departure was likely about more than the recent controversy.

The former actress also recounted how she was labeled the ‘Queen of Nice’ while hosting The Rosie O’Donnell Show and how she came to be mocked for the title.

Rosie said of Ellen ending her show: ‘It was a lot of things, and it was complicated, and I’m glad that she’s, you know, going to be finished and she can get some time to herself.’

The conversation began when Cagle brought up Ellen’s monologue from September’s season premiere when she complained about being held to a higher standard because of her cheery demeanor on television.

‘Being known as the “be kind” lady is a tricky position to be in. So let me give you some advice out there. If anybody is thinking of changing their title or giving yourself a nickname, do not go with the “be kind” lady. Don’t do it,’ she said at the time. 

Cagle said the statement reminded him of Rosie’s eponymous talk show from the late 1990s and early 2000s, when critics dubbed her the ‘Queen of Nice,’ and wondered if it had similarly hurt her career.

‘I don’t think it was the “be kind” thing that got her,’ Rosie said. ‘I think that’s an oversimplification. But it was a lot of things, and it was complicated, and I’m glad that she’s, you know, going to be finished and she can get some time to herself.’

She suggested that the 63-year-old Finding Dory star might be tired of all the ‘attention’ she got for her popular talk show.

‘It’s a huge kind of strange thing to be on a show like that, and have all that attention on you,’ she continued. ‘And she had it for like 19 years. So, you know, it’s a tough thing.’

Ellen announced last month that her long-running talk show would end in 2022. 

‘The truth is, I always trust my instincts,’ DeGeneres said when she shared the news on her show. ‘My instinct told me it’s time.’

She also claimed to have chosen the end date two years earlier when she signed her final contract for The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 

Inspired by Ellen’s monologue, Cagle wondered if the ‘Queen of Nice’ designation had harmed Rosie’s own career. 

‘Not in the way that Ellen’s talking about, I think,’ she replied. ‘But you know, I said the day it came out, “Look at this, the Queen of Nice. And [in] a couple of years, it’s going to be the Queen of Lice, the Queen of Fried Rice, you know, the Queen of We Don’t Like Her Anymore.”‘

She added that other entertainers don’t always know ‘when enough is enough,’ but she felt like The Rosie O’Donnell show ended at an ideal time, giving her a ‘good balance.’

‘And it’s hard to maintain. It’s hard to do, especially when you’re doing a show like that,’ she said.