Ellen DeGeneres’s Partner, Whom You’ll Easily Recognize

It was a fateful night on December 1, 2004, at the VH1 Big in '04 Awards held at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Little did they know, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were about to cross paths, a meeting that would change De Rossi's life forever. De Rossi and DeGeneres have been together since. De Rossi finally embraced who she was. She hadn't been avoiding relationships with women since her 1999 divorce from Mel Metcalfe. The Australian actress said she married him for the green card but couldn't take advantage of their relationship. She was in a relationship with writer-filmmaker Francesca Gregorini when she met DeGeneres, who turned 66 on January 26. But as De Rossi would soon admit, she hadn't fully lived her life. DeGeneres' public coming out was on April 14, 1997, on the cover of TIME magazine, so she knew how much living one's truth could start a conversation. DeGeneres had a profound impact on De Rossi. After dating Anne Heche for a few years, DeGeneres first met de Rossi in 2000. "I really never stopped thinking about her," De Rossi said. Then they saw each other again at a photo shoot and DeGeneres "took my breath away," the Arrested Development star said. When they reunited at the Big in '04 Awards, that was it. By the end of 2005, they were sharing a two-bedroom home in L.A. and parenting three rescue cats. They also bought a 120-acre ranch, de Rossi being an avid horseback rider. DeGeneres' Ellen chapter is behind her, but she and de Rossi still have each other. Ellen and Portia married at their Beverly Hills estate on August 16, 2008. They wore Zac Posen for their big day. Ellen's fame and success extend beyond her career. She's also made a name for herself in Southern California's real estate market, buying and selling more than 20 properties since 2003. One notable transaction was the sale of a mansion in Los Angeles for $55 million to Napster co-founder Sean Parker in 2014, just six months after purchasing it for $40 million. They also owned a beach house in Carpinteria for two years before selling it in 2019 for $23 million. In May 2021, they bought Rancho San Leandro for $14.3 million, which they had previously sold to Tinder founder Sean Rad for $11 million a few years earlier. A month later, they purchased a two-bedroom, mid century-modern bungalow near Butterfly Beach for $2.9 million.