Hello, Billy.
How are you?
I'm well.
Good.
How are you?
I'm really good.
I want to say something off the bat.
Thank you so much you're the most supportive and nicest
person in this town.
It was Tom Hanks, it's really Ellen.
[CHEERING]
Thank you.
And Tom's pretty good.
Well, I saw you shortly after that tape came out, and--
Which tape?
Some tape of you singing or something like that.
And I just-- I thought one guy goes on to become president,
and the other guy is the one that gets punished.
And I think that you've apologized many, many times.
But if you want to say anything now--
and I told you when I saw you if you want a platform to come
out and talk, because I thought you
should have had a chance to talk about this.
Yeah.
I would have liked to explain.
The time and the--
but look, at this point for me it's about going forward.
And I've learned a lot.
It was longer than I thought.
It happened three years ago, but you learn from these.
It would be a real shame to just check back into the game
and having not done anything I had the chance to--
What did you learn?
I learned a lot of things.
I learned-- look, I've got three daughters.
They're with me backstage in the green room.
They won't come to my show, but they will come to yours.
[LAUGHTER]
And look, I said with my middle daughter,
"You know, they're all going to be getting out there
in the workplace and working.
And if they ever--
when they walk into a room and they walk out of that room--
if people are smack talking when they leave
that's an unfortunate thing, and I don't want that to happen."
So you learn that.
And Ellen, everybody goes through something.
Yup.
Everybody.
And I think going through something like that--
I watched your interview with Gayle King, which I thought
was really, really good.
And also I saw you say that you now
don't go take the highs too high or the lows too low.
You stay mid-ground, which I think
is really smart, because this business can hurt you.
And because I've gone through something,
it taught me compassion.
And I think that's what it teaches
someone when you go through what you've gone through.
Yeah.
Gayle and I had this conversation standing
in front of a banner that's six stories high of me
and the new show.
And I'm looking at it as she says, "Boy, that's
got to feel really great.
You're six story big banner there."
And I said, "Yeah.
I mean if someone drives by and that
means they tune in that night, that's great."
But when you've been down, the highs and the lows,
it's best to just-- you're right--
find the middle.
And I will say as an interviewer,
as a person that's delivering news
that people consume about other people most oftenly,
it's good to know what it feels like to be down.
And I had never really in my life
felt what it's like to be down.
And when you know that, you approach people
a lot differently.
Yep.
I agree.
[APPLAUSE]
That's nice.
I think it's important as an interviewer, as a person.
And, of course, your uncle is George H.W. Bush-- was--
and I loved him.
I got a chance to meet him and spend time with him.
And he was an amazing man and you--
[APPLAUSE]
He sure was.
He was.
He was--
Oh, he spoke at my graduation.
He was the most loving--
wrote a note to each one of my children when they were born,
gave it to us, and it just said, "Welcome to the world.
Let me tell you about this.
Love your parents," all these little things, "Love,
an old uncle."
And he was terrific.
Yeah he was a kind--
Thoughtful.
--really great guy.
But you saw Trump went to that funeral.
So you got a chance to see him.
That was the first time, I assume, that you saw him
since that tape broke.
Yeah.
A lot of people thought like, was there any interaction?
Did you run into him?
And I didn't.
I was sitting in the middle of the church.
And, of course, he's the last one
to enter for security reasons, but I saw him.
I thought it was a good thing, a beautiful thing
that the former president stipulated before he died
he went out of his way to say, "Do you want him to come
or not?"
And he said, "You know what?
I don't want the headline to be I blackballed him."
And then that's all people talk about instead of the things
that happened under his watch.
And so he specifically said, "Yes, just include."
But it's normal protocol that the sitting president
does the eulogy.
He had a lucky circumstance there because 43 was his son,
so he did the eulogy.
And that was so worked out perfectly.
Right.
Well, that's fantastic that he was forgiving like that.
That's a lesson, again, that he taught.
You're now working on Extra as also you're
an executive producer, right?
Managing editor.
So what does that mean, and how early do
you have to be in to do that?
I get in at 6:45 is the first meeting.
That's off camera.
And I took on that role instead of just put
on the nice clothes and the makeup and read the lines,
because you're dealing with people's lives.
And I'm really sensitive, now, to what we say about people.
And I don't want to participate in pile on culture, which
is if someone's down I don't want to-- there's usually
two sides to stories, or just don't
want to participate in that.
So I'm just go through every little thing in the script
and make sure we're doing the right thing.
Good.
I think that's the way we all should
go with all these programs.
And you're single now, right?
Yeah.
Is that a good thing?
Are you on a dating app or anything?
[LAUGHTER]
Am I-- no.
I have my daughters in the back and they--
so anyone that I do date-- which I haven't yet--
will have to pass that test.
So I think probably a four-legged friend would
be the first thing to move in.
And we'll start there, and that's safe.
All right.
Well, if you want to rescue a four-legged friend,
I have a place for you if you want to start with that.
We-- let's--
All right.
Let's discuss.
All right, we will.
All right, you can catch Billy weekdays on Extra.
Check your local listings, and we'll be right back.