Ellen DeGeneres suffering ‘excruciating back pain’ after Covid diagnosis

Talk show host updated fans in Instagram video

Ellen DeGeneres has said she is suffering from “excruciating back pain” after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The talk show host, 62, announced last week that she had tested positive for the illness and The Ellen DeGeneres Show was paused until January.

DeGeneres posted an Instagram video of herself playing Connect 4 on Wednesday (16 December), in which she told fans that while she is feeling “100 per cent”, she had not realised that back pain was a “symptom” of Covid-19.

"Who knew? How come? Back pain. Bad,” she said.

DeGeneres’s diagnosis comes after her show was accused of fostering a toxic work environment this summer, with alleged sexual misconduct, racism and workplace bullying taking place behind the scenes.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show became one of the first programmes to bring back a live studio audience in October this year. At the time, representatives for the daytime talk show told The Independent that 40 audience members would be allowed in the studio in person, along with 70 virtual members.