Things just got even worse for daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, as a Louisiana man has come forward to accuse her of viciously bullying him when he was an 11 year-old child.

Ben Gravolet, now 52, came forward this week to claim that DeGeneres bullied him relentlessly about his weight in the 1970s. At the time, she was a 20 year-old woman working at his mother’s New Orleans recruitment agency

“She would criticize my weight,” Gravolet told Daily Mail. “I would try to do homework in the office, she’d call me stupid, she’d call me fat. She would criticize my clothes.”

“I would dread going to [my mom’s] office to see her after school or on a day if I was sick and Ellen was there,” recalled Gravolet, who is now a father of three and vice president of a New Orleans marketing agency.

“One incident stands out in my mind,” he continued. “I was sitting beside her desk. I was drawing, and she criticized the drawings. She said, ‘I guess that would look nice if you could draw.'”

“As I watched her meteoric rise to fame, people would say how great she was and all I could think was she must be an incredible actor because she was one of the most vile people I’ve ever met in my life,” he added. “Who takes pleasure in giving a child pain?”

Gravolet’s mother Tana Robinson backed his claim, describing DeGeneres as “extremely rude,” although she did not know what the future talk show host was allegedly doing to her son.

“I think I probably fired her,” Robinson explained. “Had I known that was going on, I’d have punched her and then fired her. A horrible person does that to an 11-year-old boy.”

This comes as DeGeneres is in danger of being “cancelled” after she was accused by dozens of current and former employees of turning a blind eye to racism, intimidation, and even sexual misconduct on the set of her show. Earlier this week, her brother Vance spoke out to defend DeGeneres from the backlash.

“If you think Ellen would knowingly allow bullying or racism on her show, you don’t know my sister,” he tweeted. “She has been and continues to be a bright light in a dark world. She’s one of the kindest, most generous people you’ll ever meet. And one of the funniest.”

Recommended
Join the Discussion

COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
More Stuff