Ellen DeGeneres hit "rock bottom" after she was made fun of for coming out.
Ellen DeGeneres
The 58-year-old talk show host was the "punch line of a lot of cruel jokes" when she came out but is feeling more positive about life now.
She told the new issue of OUT magazine: "I was the punch line of lots of jokes. I laughed at some, but I realised there's somebody on the other side of them. It's cruel. I've never liked mean comedy, but that became even more important to me after I was the brunt of it.
"If this isn't an example of 'it gets better,' I don't know what is. Time is a strange thing. I was at rock bottom and out of money, with no work in sight, but one step at a time, it gets better. It gets much better than better."
Meanwhile, Ellen previously admitted she "can't imagine" not being married to Portia de Rossi.
She shared: "There's no best part [about being married]. It's everything. I can't imagine not being married. I have my best friend, the person I want to spend time with more than anybody else in the world.
"Portia and I constantly say to each other, 'We are so lucky.' Sometimes it's lying in bed at night before I go to sleep, and I just say thank you to whatever, whoever is out there. Our priorities are each other too. If we had kids, then I'm sure they would be, but we are. And that's important."
Ellen feels very settled having the 43-year-old actress by her side.
She added: "I think the word 'love' is thrown around, like, 'I love you' is great to hear, but you want to feel it.
"You want to feel that you're understood, and they know exactly who you are, and they know how to take care of you ... I've gotten to a place where I really am just settled. Really. I know that I'm not going anywhere. She's not going anywhere."
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