A former producer of the Ellen DeGeneres Show has come out and made some shocking claims about the embattled TV host.
On Wednesday, Hedda Muskat appeared on the Australian breakfast program Sunrise and claimed that she was ‘emotionally abused’ during her time working on the show.
This comes amid a scandal that the show’s work culture is rife with bullying, racism and sexual harassment.
Muskat, who worked on the show during its first season in 2003, said that she was ‘fired for no reason’.
‘I was more emotionally abused, fired for no reason… they told me that they were just going to take the show in a different direction. They ended up gave my job to a guy I trained who was about 24 years old and had no experience,’ Muskat said.
She said that once when executive producer Ed Gavin pulled her into his office and asked about her contacts and sources and refused to give them up to maintain journalistic integrity, which did her no favours.
‘From that moment I was on the hit list and no longer invited to staff meetings… wasn’t allowed to sit at their table at the Emmy’s – it was a very egg-shell environment,’ she said.
She added that DeGeneres’s behaviour was poor from the beginning and that she’d often ‘snarl’.
‘When you walk into her office for example, to pitch her your segments, there was always a snarl. I always felt that I was never welcomed in her office, she always hurried me, “like get to the point, get to the point,” adding that after a few months, she was told to no longer go into Ellen’s office.
Muskat is the first producer to come forward and put their name to their claims, with many going forward anonymously. But she hopes to encourage others to do the s
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