Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi Celebrate 16 Years of Marriage: 'My Everything'

Mar. 15, 2025

Ellen DeGeneres (left) and Portia de Rossi.Photo:Kelly Sullivan/Getty

Kelly Sullivan/Getty

Ellen DeGeneresandPortia de Rossiare celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary — and the former talk show host will spend the day filming an upcoming Netflix comedy special.

DeGeneres and de Rossimet backstageat a Rock the Vote concert in 2001. At the time, de Rossi had not yet publicly come out as a lesbian. But, as she told PEOPLE ina 2021 interview, the connection was instant. “I remember thinking that she was the coolest, most fascinating, beautiful, funniest person I’d ever met.”

The actress opened up about their road to romancein an interviewwithOprah Winfreyin 2009, saying, “[I knew DeGeneres was the one for me] when I first laid eyes on her. But it took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her because I was onAlly McBealat the time and I was not living as an openly gay person. I was closeted and very, very afraid that if I talked about being gay, it would be the end of my career. So, I wasn’t about to date the most famous lesbian in the world.”

Three years after their first meeting, the pair reconnected at a 2004 photo shoot. While the spark was still there, the two were both in long-term relationships, DeGeneres with photographer Alexandra Hedison and de Rossi with singer Francesca Gregorini. Afterending thingswith their respective partners, DeGeneres and de Rossi began dating.

“She had a girlfriend and I had a girlfriend, but it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we’re going to have an affair.’ We were just supposed to be together,” DeGeneres told PEOPLE in 2005. “It was a tough decision. I was physically getting sick because I was trying not to say anything. So I told Alex and she told Francesca. It was really hard to uproot everything.”

Ellen DeGeneres (left) and Portia de Rossi.Kevin Winter / Getty Images

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When gay marriage became legal in California in 2008, the couple tied the knotin an intimate ceremonyat their home in Los Angeles.

In a 2009 conversation with PEOPLE, de Rossi reflected on their marriage, which she described as “a different way of being together.”

“There’s a peace to [being married] and a sense of togetherness that we just didn’t have before. And I didn’t even realize it would change as much as it has, but it’s so lovely,” she added.

source: people.com