--- title: Watch Ellen DeGeneres Pay Tribute to President Obama description: Ellen DeGeneres spent a few minutes saying goodbye to Barack and Michelle Obama to commemorate the President's final day in office. canonical: https://time.com/4639431/ellen-degeneres-president-obama-tribute/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-19T17:57:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:18.060Z og:title: Watch Ellen DeGeneres's Heartfelt Tribute to President Obama og:description: "I am a legally married woman because of him" og:url: https://time.com/4639431/ellen-degeneres-president-obama-tribute/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Ellen DeGeneres's Heartfelt Tribute to President Obama twitter:description: "I am a legally married woman because of him" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Ellen DeGeneres's Heartfelt Tribute to President Obama: 'I Am a Legally Married Woman Because of Him'  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 19, 2017 5:57 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 19, 2017 5:57 PM UTC To commemorate [President Barack Obama’s final day](http://time.com/4636294/president-barack-obama-highlights/) in office, [Ellen DeGeneres](http://time.com/4637527/ellen-la-la-land-parody/) spent a few minutes of Thursday’s episode of _The Ellen Show_ saying goodbye to him and [First Lady Michelle Obama](http://time.com/4638155/michelle-obama-white-house-final-walk/). DeGeneres began the segment by thanking POTUS for everything he accomplished during his White House tenure, including legalizing gay marriage.”I want to personally thank him for changing my life,” she said. “I am a legally married woman because of him and so is my wife \[Portia de Rossi\]. His courage and compassion created equality for everyone. He moved us forward and made more happen in the past eight years than I ever dreamed possible. I love him. I love Michelle.” She then aired a special tribute montage featuring clips from her many encounters with the First Couple over the years. Watch the full video below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4639431/ellen-degeneres-president-obama-tribute/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4639431/ellen-degeneres-president-obama-tribute/"},"headline":"Watch Ellen DeGeneres's Heartfelt Tribute to President Obama: 'I Am a Legally Married Woman Because of Him'","datePublished":"2017-01-19T17:57:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:18.060Z","description":"\"I want to personally thank him for changing my life\"","url":"https://time.com/4639431/ellen-degeneres-president-obama-tribute/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Barack Obama","Television","Michelle Obama","President Barack Obama","President Obama","Ellen Degeneres","TV","The Ellen Show","The Ellen Degeneres Show"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4639431/ellen-degeneres-president-obama-tribute/","name":"Watch Ellen DeGeneres's Heartfelt Tribute to President Obama: 'I Am a Legally Married Woman Because of Him'"}}]}] ```