{"id":666479,"date":"2026-11-04T08:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/666479\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T08:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:28:10","slug":"ellen-degeneres-donation-to-late-colleague-divides-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/666479\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellen DeGeneres\u2019 donation to late colleague divides the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ellen DeGeneres is facing backlash on social media over what critics claim was a measly donation in support of Matthew Wright, the executive producer of her talk show who died suddenly at the age of 52.<\/p>\n

Wright, who worked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for 16 years, passed away late last week while travelling away from his family in Los Angeles, according to reports. <\/p>\n

Be the first to know when news breaks. Download our new app<\/a><\/p>\n

While details around the cause of Wright\u2019s death are unknown, a GoFundMe<\/a> page set up for his family said he passed away suddenly in an \u201cunfathomable tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis husband, father, sister and niece are in New York, desperate to be reunited for a proper goodbye,\u201d the GoFundMe page read. \u201cWe\u2019re asking for all of his friends, who Matt loved so fully, to help the family at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fundraiser has already surpassed its goal of $70,000, with a GoFundMe profile bearing DeGeneres\u2019 name listed as donating a little over $7000 to the page.<\/p>\n

DeGeneres\u2019 apparent donation divided opinion, with some claiming the talk show host should\u2019ve given more and others saying she wasn\u2019t obligated to donate anything in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs she broke?\u201d one critic wrote on X, while others sarcastically said DeGeneres was a \u201cbig spender\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWow, 0.001% of her net worth! How generous!,\u201d another user wrote, with a fourth demanding saying the donation \u201ccomes off as cruel\u201d given DeGeneres is \u201cworth hundreds of millions of dollars\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others defended the star, saying \u201cat least she was willing to donate money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gave money. She didn\u2019t have to give any. Leave her alone,\u201d one X user wrote, with another agreeing DeGeneres \u201ccould\u2019ve given nothing at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

The commentary comes after DeGeneres shared an emotional video tribute to Wright, who produced her former talk show up until its conclusion amid a flurry of controversy<\/a> and allegations back in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an amazing guy,\u201d DeGeneres said while holding back tears in the Instagram video.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was funny. God, he made me laugh. He would surprise me with things that he did all the time. He was smart. He was kind. He was the part of our show that \u2014 I mean, everyone loved him. I loved him. And it\u2019s just shocking \u2014 it\u2019s shocking,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

DeGeneres made a rare public appearance<\/a> late last month with a surprise guest spot on The Graham Norton Show, where she admitted she \u201creally miss[ed] being on TV\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ellen DeGeneres is facing backlash on social media over what critics claim was a measly donation in support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[300135,300126,264706,300123,4979,300116,165361,168022,126022,300114,300147,300150,300143,300129,300151,300144,300141,300158,300153,300134,262838,300152,300113,300154,300117,300156,60369,458,300162,29505,300118,75977,19268,6759,8267,146,28292,300136,300155,300145,300160,248019,300127,300138,300140,85,46,300125,300148,300149,300131,264806,292685,1900,23889,300133,105624,2101,1886,43,300130,300120,545,300121,300119,1533,14491,300139,2460,4952,2047,62668,249248,265398,300124,284318,300157,215871,258572,300161,300142,300122,43608,300159,13446,300137,300128,19886,300115,300132,411,300146],"class_list":["post-666479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-the-commentary","tag-stingy","tag-s-death","tag-0-001","tag-4979","tag-16-years","tag-165361","tag-168022","tag-126022","tag-a-big-spender","tag-a-not-so-generous-donation","tag-a-flurry","tag-a-fourth","tag-a-gofundme-page","tag-a-gofundme-profile","tag-a-little-over-7000","tag-a-measly-donation","tag-a-proper-goodbye","tag-a-rare-public-appearance","tag-a-surprise-guest-spot","tag-all-the-time","tag-an-unfathomable-tragedy","tag-an-amazing-guy","tag-an-emotional-video-tribute","tag-another-user","tag-apparent-donation","tag-backlash","tag-celebrities","tag-controversy-and-allegations","tag-critics","tag-degeneres","tag-dollars","tag-donation","tag-ed","tag-ellen-degeneres","tag-entertainment","tag-father","tag-her-former-talk-show","tag-her-late-producer","tag-her-net-worth","tag-her-talk-show","tag-his-family","tag-his-friends","tag-his-husband","tag-hundreds-of","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-its-conclusion","tag-its-goal","tag-late-colleague","tag-late-friend","tag-late-last-month","tag-late-last-week","tag-los-angeles","tag-matt","tag-matthew-wright","tag-millions","tag-money","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-one-critic","tag-one-x-user","tag-opinion","tag-our-new-appwhile-details","tag-our-show","tag-reports","tag-scrutiny","tag-sister-and-niece","tag-social-media","tag-star","tag-support","tag-tears","tag-the-age","tag-the-cause","tag-the-donation","tag-the-ellen-degeneres-show","tag-the-executive-producer","tag-the-family","tag-the-first","tag-the-first-place","tag-the-fundraiser","tag-the-gofundme-page","tag-the-graham-norton-show","tag-the-instagram-video","tag-the-internet","tag-the-page-degeneres","tag-the-part","tag-the-star","tag-the-talk-show-host","tag-this-time","tag-tv","tag-wright"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}