--- title: Ellen DeGeneres Defends George W. Bush Friendship description: DeGeneres has defended sitting next to former President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game in a video segment on her talk show canonical: https://time.com/5694959/ellen-degeneres-george-bush-nfl-game/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-08T13:39:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:06:15.579Z og:title: Ellen DeGeneres Defends Sitting Next to George W. Bush At Dallas Cowboys Game og:description: "I'm friends with George Bush," she said. "In fact I'm friends with a lot of people who don't share the same beliefs that I have." og:url: https://time.com/5694959/ellen-degeneres-george-bush-nfl-game/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a41d2c48b967a54/698a03f222fb85ea80e29f2f/ellen-degeneres-george-bush-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6720 og:image:height: 3780 og:image:alt: Ellen's Game of Games - Season 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ellen DeGeneres Defends Sitting Next to George W. Bush At Dallas Cowboys Game twitter:description: "I'm friends with George Bush," she said. "In fact I'm friends with a lot of people who don't share the same beliefs that I have." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a41d2c48b967a54/698a03f222fb85ea80e29f2f/ellen-degeneres-george-bush-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ellen DeGeneres Defends Sitting Next to George W. Bush At NFL Game > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME The Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition The Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors. The Brief brings TIME's perspective to the day's most important stories, helping readers understand not just what is happening, but why it matters. It combines original reporting and analysis with the best of TIME, spanning politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Oct 8, 2019 1:39 PM UTC  ELLEN'S GAME OF GAMES -- "Beauty and the Boots" Episode 204 -- Pictured: Ellen DeGeneres -- (Photo by: Mike Rozman/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) ELLEN'S GAME OF GAMES -- "Beauty and the Boots" Episode 204 -- Pictured: Ellen DeGeneres -- (Photo by: Mike Rozman/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) Mike Rozman—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Oct 8, 2019 1:39 PM UTC Talk show host [Ellen DeGeneres](https://time.com/4921665/ellen-degeneres-comedy-sexism-homophobia/) has defended sitting next to former President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game on Sunday in [a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSZtjol7mJA&t=8s) released Monday night ahead of Tuesday’s broadcast. > [](https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/status/1181395164499070976) DeGeneres faced [criticism](https://people.com/politics/george-w-bush-ellen-degeneres-at-cowboys-packers-game/) on Twitter after cameras showed her laughing next to the former Republican President during Sunday’s broadcast of the game. Some argued it was hypocritical for DeGeneres, an out gay women who has supported liberal causes, to socialize with the former Republican President whose record includes the Iraq War and opposition to gay marriage. > [](https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1181026713943314432) > [](https://twitter.com/ryanaboyd/status/1180961746648911872) > [](https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/1180955815362121729) Degeneres disagrees. “I’m friends with George Bush,” she said in the video posted Monday night. “In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s okay.” DeGeneres [came out as gay](https://time.com/4728994/ellen-degeneres-1997-coming-out-cover/) in 1997 and was [awarded](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiAnFW5AuDY) the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2017 from then-President Barack Obama for pioneering LGBTQ representation. As President, former President Bush opposed gay marriage and [endorsed](https://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/24/elec04.prez.bush.marriage/) a constitutional amendment explicitly banning gay marriage while running for reelection in 2004 — although he [endorsed](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/politics/campaign/bush-says-his-party-is-wrong-to-oppose-gay-civil-unions.html) civil unions. DeGeneres said she and her wife Portia de Rossi were invited to the game by Charlotte Jones, daughter of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (who [donated](https://money.cnn.com/2017/09/25/news/companies/trump-nfl-owners-donations/index.html) a million dollars to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee). They sat in Jones’s box, and DeGeneres ended up seated next to former President Bush. “During the game they showed a shot of George and me laughing together and so people were upset,” she said. “They thought why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?” “A lot of people were mad, and they did what people do when they’re mad, they tweet,” she continued. DeGeneres then showed a tweet she said she loved: “Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again.” The audience cheered; “exactly,” DeGeneres said. “Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them,” she said. “When I say be kind to one and other I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do, I mean be kind to everyone.” DeGeneres thanked Charlotte and Jerry Jones for hosting them and “President Bush and Laura for a Sunday afternoon that was so fun.” Sunday wasn’t the first time DeGenres and Bush have appeared together. He [was a guest on her talk show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKeFXs8a0Xk) in 2017. Ellen has long said she’s not a political comedian and that she tries to keep politics out of her show. However she has spoken up against anti-LGBTQ laws in the past. In 2016, for example, she [spoke out](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-ellen-degeneres-mississippi-lgbt-law-20160407-htmlstory.html) against a religious-freedom law in Louisiana that would allow for discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2019, she supported a boycott of hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei after the country announced it would issue the death penalty on those convicted for having gay sex. DeGeneres has also spoke out against President Donald Trump, and [told Matt Lauer](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/ellen-degeneres-donald-trump) in 2017 that she would never have the President on her show. “Because I’m not going to change his mind,” DeGeneres said. “He’s against everything that I stand for.” In her video posted on Monday, DeGeneres also made a subtle jab at the President, joking that she celebrated every time “another whistleblower came forward,” adding that she meant the referees at the Cowboys game. DeGeneres has also [faced criticism](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/michaelblackmon/black-queer-people-ellen-degeneres-criticism) for defending comedian Kevin Hart, who stepped down from hosting the 2019 Oscars after old [anti-gay tweets](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/michaelblackmon/kevin-hart-homophobic-tweets-gay-oscars?bftwnews&utm%5Fterm=4ldqpgc#4ldqpgc) of his surfaced. ” “I believe in forgiveness. I believe in second chances. And I believe in @KevinHart4real,” she tweeted. > [](https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/status/1081072398969925632) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5694959/ellen-degeneres-george-bush-nfl-game/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5694959/ellen-degeneres-george-bush-nfl-game/"},"headline":"Ellen DeGeneres Defends Sitting Next to George W. 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