Former fans of the comedian have heard how Ellen DeGeneres is only nice to famous people, fostering a culture of fear among employees.
A former guest on the show now shares that Ellen's fake smile is only for the cameras.
Dana Dimatteo was a guest on The Ellen Show in 2018.
Initially an audience member who had flown out purely to attend the taping, she was selected to go up on stage for a game.
29-year-old Dana met Ellen, and describes her demeanor as being like night and day depending upon whether the camera is rolling.
Speaking to British tabloid The Sun, Dana recalls how fake Ellen proved to be.
"During commercial breaks, Ellen would break out of her 'kind' character and sit moodily in silence on her couch," she revealed, "not acknowledging anyone."
“She didn’t say one word to the audience unless the cameras were on," Dana lamented, "she snapped out of her character the second the cameras stopped rolling."
"My friend and I loved the show and it took us so long to get tickets," Dana detailed.
She added: "We flew all the way to Los Angeles from Chicago just for that."
"We were told by the producers that if we were picked we were not allowed to be funnier or smarter than Ellen," Dana revealed, "that she is the star and the comedian, not us."
“We were told to act in a very specific way and to only speak if she asked us a question," Dana recalled.
“They made us scream and jump around backstage as a test," she added.
Dane expressed: "It was pretty humiliating.”
Dana and another guest were invited onto the stage to play Make It Rain, where contestants answer questions ... and get soaked with water.
"Once the game was over, we were soaking wet so they sent us backstage," Dana shared.
“Then they just left us there…we waited pretty much the whole show in our soaking wet clothes for someone to bring us dry things to change into," she lamented. "It was really cold and uncomfortable.”
“I didn’t enjoy myself on the show," Dana shared.
"You have to follow all these rules, you can’t be yourself," she lamented.
Dana described: "You have to clap constantly and laugh at things that aren’t funny.”
Ellen has been under fire for her cruel behavior and toxic work atmosphere for months.
In a letter sent to employees, Ellen apologized ... sort of .. for neglecting to correct the problem.
However, the language in the letter suggested that the wrongdoing was on the part of producers and underlings only, that Ellen had simply been unaware.
Like Ellen's attempt to grill Dakota Johnson, her letter to employees did not go over well.
Staffers labeled her denials of knowing about or contributing to the toxic atmosphere "complete bull."
Between her employees and random service workers she has allegedly terrorized, it seems like the only person supporting Ellen these days is her wife.
Actually, that's not quite the truth -- a number of millionaire celebrities, to whom Ellen has been nice, have spoken out to support her.
Jay Leno, whose alleged racist jokes got Gabrielle Union fired from AGT, spoke out to defend her.
And Katy Perry has also shown Ellen her support, since apparently, if Ellen's nice to a hot millionaire celebrity, she couldn't be mean to underlings?
