But this wasn’t the first time the cultural ground had shifted under DeGeneres’ feet. After coming out in 1997,complete with matching storylines on her sitcom,DeGeneres was celebrated as a positive role model for gay teens. But the goodwill from her breakthrough announcement didn’t last. Activists started to ask when DeGeneres would use her then unique platform she had created for herself to comment on gay rights issues and the opposition the community faced from America’s conservative movement. She never really did.

DeGeneres has a classic celebrity’s instinct:a striking moment for the public,but don’t get bogged down in the detail. She thought like a celebrity,and she acted like one. The famous flocked to DeGeneres’ couch – dancing with her when they emerged from the wings to a cheering audience – and they shared tales of Los Angeles bubble life and played goofy games. The idea that DeGeneres was an outsider sidling up to celebs didn’t last. In later years she was plainly more famous than most of her visitors.

The expectations attached to celebrities,especially by Millennials and Gen-Z,have deeply changed in recent years. DeGeneres was repeatedly on the wrong side of that – she publicly sided with regular guest comedian Kevin Hart when he lost the hosting gig on the 2018 Academy Awards due to homophobic tweets. COVID-19 only crystallised that divide,so that DeGeneres’ comment in April 2020 that self-quarantining with wife Portia de Rossi in their Californian mansion was akin to “being in jail” came across as being spectacularly tone-deaf.