Is Ellen DeGeneres Vegan This Many people have asked, Is Ellen DeGeneres vegan? The simple answer is: she was, but her dietary journey has shifted over time. For several years, Ellen DeGeneres publicly identified as vegan, aligning her food choices with her strong advocacy for animal welfare. However, in more recent times, she has admitted to making exceptions, incorporating items like fish and eggs into her diet.
This evolution makes the question more complex than a binary “yes or no.” Ellen’s relationship with veganism has not only been personal, but also public, serving as part of her brand, her activism, and even her media presence. To truly understand whether Ellen is vegan (or was vegan), we need to trace how, why, and when she adopted the vegan lifestyle — and how that has changed.
Why Did Ellen DeGeneres Go Vegan in the First Place?
The roots of Ellen’s veganism are deeply ethical. According to PETA, Ellen chose to go vegan because she became aware of the reality of factory farming. She has said that once she educated herself about how animals are treated in industrial farms through documentaries like Earthlings and Meet Your Meat she could no longer disconnect the food on her plate from the fact that “they were living things, with feelings.”
She has also mentioned reading influential books such as Diet for a New America, which helped illuminate for her the link between animal suffering and the food industry. For Ellen, going vegan wasn’t just about her health it was a moral decision rooted in empathy and compassion.
On top of that, Ellen has spoken about how veganism aligned with her broader values. She often frames her dietary choices as part of how she lives a life of kindness and respect not just toward animals, but toward the planet. She’s made it clear that her activism and her food choices go hand in hand.
Her Vegan Years: What Being Vegan Meant for Ellen
During the peak of her veganism, Ellen was very consistent in promoting a plant-based lifestyle. Her work from television segments to her website often highlighted vegan recipes, health tips, and ethical reasoning for avoiding animal products.
On her “Ellen’s Healthy Living” web page, she shared plant-based recipes like “wild west eggplant bacon” or gluten-free lentil meatballs, making the vegan diet accessible and fun. The tone wasn’t confrontational; rather, Ellen’s approach was warm, encouraging, and aspirational. She wasn’t preaching she was inviting people to feel better, eat more compassionately, and live in harmony with her values.
It’s worth noting how her celebrity influenced the perception of veganism. Because Ellen is so beloved and widely known, her adoption of veganism carried weight. To many, she offered a down-to-earth, relatable face for an often misunderstood lifestyle. Rather than portray veganism as strict or extreme, she almost normalized it by presenting it as a journey one anyone could start, bit by bit.
Struggles and Challenges: Ellen’s Honest Reflections
Even for someone as committed as Ellen once was, veganism came with difficulties. In an interview years ago, she admitted that her first attempt at being vegan lasted only six months. She talked about how hard it is to make a daily habit change: giving up meat, eggs, and dairy isn’t just a diet shift, but a lifestyle shift. For Ellen, it meant rethinking her relationship with food, her routines, and even how she socializes around meals.
She also shared some very human reflections: she recognized that her past eating habits were inconsistent with her love for animals. She drove past “lovely pastures of cows” and would still order steak, she said, revealing a moral dissonance that many people face.
These admissions make her story more genuine. Rather than presenting veganism as an overnight moral transformation, Ellen’s narrative acknowledges that the shift is emotional, challenging, and deeply personal.
Did She
Interestingly, Ellen has stated that her vegan diet wasn’t “pure” all the time. In fact, she’s mentioned making exceptions for eggs and fish under certain conditions.
She revealed that she eats “organically raised” eggs specifically, eggs from chickens she knows, or from what she described as “happy” chickens in someone’s backyard. This nuance has drawn mixed reactions: to some, it’s a compromise; to others, it’s a pragmatic approach that prioritizes welfare over pure ideology.
Moreover, Ellen admitted that she occasionally introduces fish into her diet. In her Netflix special “Relatable,” she said:
“I was vegan for eight years … But in the last year or two … I started eating a piece of fish once in a while.”
That’s a major shift, especially for someone who publicly championed veganism. And yet, she frames it not as a failure, but as a personal decision a choice she arrived at without abandoning her ethical core.
Reactions from the Public and Vegan Community
Ellen’s transition from a strict vegan diet to a more flexible one has sparked conversations. On one hand, some fans admire how honest she is about her changes. On the other hand, critics argue that her “exceptions” dilute her vegan advocacy.
Media outlets and observers have noted that while Ellen may no longer follow veganism as rigidly, she continues to promote reducing meat consumption. Even when she’s not strictly vegan, her voice remains influential: in a video addressed to her massive Instagram following, she encouraged people to “eat less meat” for the sake of their health, the animals, and the planet.
This dual role as both a former strict vegan and a longtime animal welfare advocate gives Ellen a unique place in public discourse. She’s not just a celebrity who adopted veganism; she’s someone who evolved, and she invites her audience to evolve too.
Motivations Beyond Diet: Animal Welfare, Activism, and Celebrity Influence
One of the strongest threads throughout Ellen’s vegan journey is her activism. She hasn’t treated veganism purely as a diet for herself she uses her platform to push for larger change.
Her motivation, especially early on, was deeply rooted in compassion. Learning about factory farming and its brutal realities caused a “click” moment for her. That click wasn’t just moral it was emotional, resonating with her lifetime of loving animals.
Even after shifting away from strict veganism, Ellen’s concern for animal welfare hasn’t waned. She continues to advocate for humane treatment, sustainable consumption, and ethical consideration in how we choose our food. Her celebrity status amplifies her voice, making her advocacy more visible and, arguably, more impactful.
The Personal Cost and Emotional Weight of Veganism
For Ellen, being vegan (or having been vegan) isn’t just about nutrition it’s personal. She has spoken about how dietary choices affect not just the body, but the mind, emotionally and spiritually.
According to a more academic reflection, Ellen associated her plant-based diet with reduced anxiety and a calmer mental state. She believed that by not consuming animal products, she was not internalizing the fear, pain, or suffering associated with those lives. That perspective is profound: it links veganism not just to animal welfare, but to one’s internal peace.
She also recognized that living in a world where animal exploitation is normalized is difficult. Choosing veganism meant confronting uncomfortable truths, and that takes courage and persistence. Her story isn’t just about dietary reform; it’s about a moral and emotional alignment a willingness to face the reality behind what we consume.
The Public Shift: From Vegan Advocate to Flexible Eater
So, when did Ellen stop being strictly vegan? Reports and her own statements suggest that after around eight years, she began reintroducing certain animal products, which wasn’t a sudden turnaround, but rather a gradual re-adaptation.
In her 2019 video urging people to eat less meat, she referred to herself as someone who already doesn’t “eat meat.” That phrasing signals that while her eating habits changed, her values may have stayed consistent. She still encourages others to reduce consumption for environmental and ethical reasons.
Some critics call her a “celebrity ex-vegan,” while others view her shift as a realistic, balanced approach to living ethically in a non-vegan world. Certainly, her personal decision reflects the fact that for many people, dietary journeys are not linear they are full of compromises, experimentation, and reflection.
What Her Change Means for Veganism as a Movement
Ellen’s evolution from a strict vegan to someone who makes exceptions raises important questions for the vegan movement itself:
- Ellen’s experience
- Does celebrity vegan advocacy lose its power if the celebrity stops being strictly vegan?
- Is veganism all-or-nothing?
- Perhaps not. Ellen’s continued advocacy for reducing animal consumption means her voice still matters. Even if she’s not rigidly vegan, she retains credibility by encouraging moderation, not perfection.
- Can veganism be sustainable on a personal level?
- Ellen’s candidness about her struggles and changes underscores that long-term veganism requires more than willpower it requires flexibility. Her journey suggests that it’s okay for people to evolve, and that advocacy can survive beyond strict personal adherence.
Concluding Thoughts: So, Is Ellen DeGeneres Vegan?
To circle back: Ellen DeGeneres was vegan for many years, passionately and publicly. Her shift away from strict veganism began in recent years, and now she allows herself some flexibility primarily with eggs from known, “happy” chickens and occasional pieces of fish. But to reduce her identity to “ex-vegan” misses the nuance.
Ellen’s story is not one of abandonment. Rather, it’s a deeper reflection of how moral and dietary values can coexist with real-life compromises. She continues to champion animal welfare, to push for less meat consumption, and to use her platform to raise awareness. Her journey embodies the complexity of ethical eating: it’s not always black and white, and that’s okay.
