Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi 2018: Clips from Couple’s ‘Life-Changing’ Rwanda Trip Are the Best Response to Divorce Rumors

Ellen DeGeneres opened the 16th season of her talk show by sharing several clips from her “life-changing” trip to Rwanda and other destinations in Africa with her wife, Portia de Rossi. The video clips from the said vacation are simply the best response to divorce rumors that the couple has faced in the past months.

On DeGeneres’s show, she told the audience that her recent trip to Rwanda was a “lifelong dream,” where they saw mountain gorillas up-close. The talk show host also noted that their vacation had something to with the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund, a foundation that de Rossi set up as one of her surprise birthday presents for DeGeneres last January.

DeGeneres and de Rossi’s organization is setting up schools in Rwanda in honor of the late conservationist Dr. Dian Fossey, who was known for her huge contribution to the study and protection of mountain gorillas. So their vacation last June was obviously not just a plain trip and was related to their efforts in animal conservation.

As expected, it would not be an Ellen DeGeneres trip without the funny accounts. The first rule that their guide gave them before seeing mountain gorillas up-close was to not point a finger at the animals because they take it “as a sign of aggression.” However, that was exactly what the host did upon seeing the very first gorilla. Luckily, their guide was quick to remind them of the said rule and that the gorilla “didn’t seem to mind,” according to DeGeneres.

While DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi appear to continuously share a happy marriage, they are not spared from divorce rumors. But the 45-year-old actress previously said that she has a different and more positive take on these reports.

“The divorce rumors came and then we really knew the perceptions had changed,” de Rossi told Us Weekly last June. “I’m not kidding. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when that started happening I thought, ‘Oh, now we’re finally accepted.’ We get the same s*** as every celebrity couple.”

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s trip to Africa last June was also likely a part of an early celebration of their 10th year wedding anniversary. The couple got married in a private ceremony in August 2008, just a few months after the ban on same-sex marriage was lifted in the United States.