Ellen: No One Told Me This About COVID

Talk show host says she's 'great' apart from back pain
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2020 9:05 AM CST
Ellen: This One COVID Symptom Is 'Excruciating'
Ellen DeGeneres arrives at the 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 21, 2015.   (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Ellen DeGeneres was "feeling fine" when she revealed her COVID-19 diagnosis a week ago. That's not quite the case now. In a video released Wednesday, the talk show host said she was "feeling 100%" and "really good"—but then immediately described an unwelcome symptom: "excruciating back pain." "One thing they don't tell you is you get, somehow, excruciating back pain," she said, per People. "I didn’t know that was a symptom, but I talked to some other people and … back pain."

"Who knew? How come? Back pain. Bad," DeGeneres went on. She took a moment to thank well-wishers before diving into a game of Connect Four with wife Portia de Rossi, who acted as cameraperson. DeGeneres had spent time with a few friends in Montecito, Calif., "while wearing masks and distanced," before her diagnosis, a source tells Entertainment Tonight. She'd also conducted in-studio interviews with celebrities including Justin Bieber and Lil Nas X. Production of the Ellen show has been paused until January. (More Ellen DeGeneres stories.)

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