Greyson Chance Says 'Manipulative' Ellen DeGeneres 'Abandoned' Him
Celebrity

Greyson Chance Says 'Manipulative' Ellen DeGeneres 'Abandoned' Him

Greyson Chance is speaking out about feeling "completely abandoned" by Ellen DeGeneres after being discovered by her at 12-years-old.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the 25-year-old musician talked about how the talk show host — who's been rumored to have a nasty streak and was accused of making The Ellen Show a toxic workplace — went from one of his earliest supporters to a "way too controlling" overseer of his burgeoning career to a chilly stranger that kicked him to the curb after his music didn't perform as well as she wanted, despite DeGeneres allegedly saying that she was "going to protect him" at the beginning of their relationship.

"I've never met someone more manipulative, more self-centered and more blatantly opportunistic than her," Chance said of the comic, who signed him to her eleveneleven music label in 2010 after seeing his viral performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi." However, the "shut up" artist claimed that DeGeneres quickly became extremely domineering, exerting a "horrible" amount of power over him and his career.

“My whole week, my whole month, my whole year could change [with] one text message from her," Chance said, before recalling an alleged incident involving an advanced copy of Justin Bieber's Never Say Never documentary, which DeGeneres wanted the overworked pre-teen to take inspiration from. But when the singer-songwriter was unable to find time to watch it after his 14 to 16-hour work days, he said that DeGeneres verbally attacked his mother over the phone, alleging that he could "just remember hearing on the other side of the phone, just yelling [and] beratement: 'What type of mother are you? Do you realize that I went out of my way to get this for you, and he can't sit down and watch it?'"

Chance then went on to say that their relationship went completely sour in late 2012 when hisTruth Be Told, Part 1 EP underperformed, after which DeGeneres allegedly "abandoned" him, along with the team she hired for him.

"I couldn't get ahold of her. Couldn't talk to her," Chance said, though he added that he was still invited to appear on The Ellen Show after the alleged ghosting.

"Whenever I would come on the show, it was such a fake smile. She wouldn't even ask, 'How are you doing? How are you holding up?' It was just like, 'Here's what we're going to talk about. We'll see you on there," he claimed, before calling the talk show "a place of active trauma for me" and alleging that DeGeneres also mistreated her crew in incredibly "degrading" ways.

“She would come in and look at a rack, yell at stylists, berate people in front of me," Chance continued. "And [then she would] say, ‘This is what you’re wearing on the show.'"

Not only that, but the musician also recalled a particularly unsavory encounter that happened shortly after he came out as gay in 2019, in which she supposedly "came out during soundcheck and she looked at me, hugged me."

"And she said, 'How have you been?,'" he said. "And that just killed me inside because I was like, 'What do you mean how have I fuckiing been? Where have you been?"

DeGeneres has yet to publicly respond to Chance's allegations. In the meantime though, you can read his Rolling Stone interview here.

Photos via Getty / Jason Mendez & Dave Kotinsky