Ellen DeGeneres Shares Video From Her Life-Changing Trip to Africa

DeGeneres showed footage her incredible adventure with Portia De Rossi on The Ellen DeGeneres Show

By Elyse Dupre Sep 04, 2018 4:08 PMTags
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Just a few months after Ellen DeGeneres traveled to Africa with her wife Portia De Rossi, the talk-show host shared footage from their incredible adventure on Tuesday's season 16 premiere of The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Back in February, de Rossi surprised DeGeneres by revealing she had set up The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund in honor of the host's 60th birthday. The foundation supports global conservation efforts for critically endangered species and is building a campus for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda as one of its first projects. 

So, the couple traveled to Rwanda in June and spent some quality time with the country's gorillas.

Before beginning their trek through the mountains to see the gorillas, DeGeneres and de Rossi's guides warned them not to point at the gorillas as it can be seen as a sign of aggression. However, DeGeneres quickly forgot this rule and pointed at the first gorilla she saw.

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Luckily, the ape didn't seem to notice and DeGeneres and de Rossi continued their excursion. Soon, they encountered another silverback gorilla. In fact, the animal actually bumped into DeGeneres' sister-in-law while walking through. While the talk-show host admitted she was a little scared at the time, she also couldn't help but feel a little jealous of her sister-in-law's close encounter.

"I was like I want to be bumped by a gorilla," she said.

The group went back to the mountains the next day and saw a new family of gorillas. 

"They were just waiting for us," DeGeneres said, "and then they asked for tickets to 12 days [of giveaways]."

However, the gorillas weren't the only animals DeGeneres and de Rossi saw on their trip. They also saw giraffes during their stay at Giraffe Manor in Kenya. In fact, DeGeneres actually shared a meal with one while having breakfast at the hotel.

"That giraffe—it was cute and all but it ate so much," she said. "The bill for breakfast was $400, just for breakfast."

They also saw elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.

All in all, DeGeneres described the trip as a "lifelong dream." 

To see more footage from the trip, check out the video.