The Diet Choice Ellen DeGeneres (68) Made That Surprised Fans

Ellen DeGeneres spent nearly a decade as one of Hollywood’s most outspoken vegan advocates, using her massive platform to push millions of fans toward eating less meat. Then, without much warning, she revealed something that quietly contradicted everything fans thought they knew about her diet.

The reveal came almost as a throwaway line during a comedy special, delivered with the same casual humor she brings to everything else. It still managed to genuinely surprise longtime fans who had followed her vegan journey for years.

None of it happened as a dramatic public announcement. Here is the real story behind the diet choice that quietly surprised Ellen DeGeneres’s fans.

Going Vegan Took A Slow, Specific Trigger

DeGeneres first tried giving up meat about fifteen years before finally committing, but that early attempt only lasted six months. The moment that actually stuck came later, after someone mentioned that knowing how chicken gets made would put anyone off eating it entirely.

That single comment worked like a switch flipping for her, turning years of loving steak and sausage into an immediate, lasting change. She has said she had always called herself an animal lover, despite spending years eating the very animals she claimed to love.

Eight Years Of Outspoken Advocacy

Once committed, DeGeneres became one of the more visible celebrity faces of veganism, regularly promoting plant based brands and recipes on her talk show. She has described the shift as making her feel healthier, less tired and lighter, crediting the diet with a genuine improvement in how she felt day to day.

She used her platform to push the message well beyond her own plate, once spending an entire talk show segment convincing a skeptical Jessica Simpson to try Gardein, a plant based meat brand she loved. Even committed meat eaters, she argued elsewhere, could make a real difference just by cutting back rather than eliminating meat entirely.

Then She Quietly Changed Her Mind

“I was healthier than I’d ever been, I loved being vegan,” DeGeneres said during her 2018 Netflix special Relatable, before admitting she had started eating fish and eggs again for no particular reason. The admission arrived with her usual comedic timing, but it still marked a genuine shift after eight strict years.

By her 2019 standup special, she was joking that she was not really vegan anymore, framing the label itself as more of a punchline than an accurate description. She has continued to speak positively about her years as a vegan, even while acknowledging she personally could not sustain it forever.

Ellen DeGeneres’s diet choice was never really a rejection of everything she once believed about veganism, it was simply an honest admission that her own body eventually asked for something different.

Fans who expected a lifetime commitment got something more human instead, a change delivered with a shrug and a joke rather than an announcement.