Ellen DeGeneres' former bodyguard for the 2014 Oscars said he had a "kind of demeaning" experience with the host in a new interview Friday.
Speaking to Fox News, Tom Majercak said that he was hired to protect DeGeneres, her mother, and her wife Portia de Rossi for the entire evening of the 86th Academy Awards, as they attended the ceremony (which DeGeneres hosted) and various events before and after. According to the publication, he was senior manager of operations for Security Imagery Specialists (SIS), which provided security for the Oscars in 2014 and has also provided security for high-profile companies including Apple, Twitter, and Google.
But Majercak said his experience with DeGenres was far from ideal.
"I'm holding their hands and walking them through individuals and large groups of people. Ellen is the one person that I've been assigned to — and I've been assigned to quite a few celebrities — that has never taken the time to say hi to me," Majercak said.
According to the bodyguard, DeGeneres' wife de Rossi was "very pleasant" throughout the evening and "carried on a conversation," but things "started going negatively" when de Rossi introduced him to the talk show host.
"Ellen pretty much just gave me a side glance out of her eye and didn't even say 'hello,' or 'thank you for protecting my mother, my wife and me,'" Majercak told Fox News, adding, "It was very cold and it was very sly and it was actually kind of demeaning in the way that she treats people other than those who are in her circle."
Majercak also told Fox News that during the Governor's Ball (a high-profile Oscars after-party), only celebrities who had been pre-approved by DeGeneres could come and talk to her at her table.
The bodyguard said he was inspired to say something after other stories of DeGeneres supposedly acting rude have circulated online in recent months.
"It's bugged me for years," Majercak said of his time with the host. "I see this person come across as being very enlightened and positive and awesome and everybody loves her and is in awe and that's really not the case when you meet her in person."
Majercak isn't the only person who's spoken out against DeGeneres recently.
Dutch beauty YouTuber Nikkie de Jager, also known as NikkieTutorials, was one of the first people to call out DeGeneres, saying on a talk show in her home country in February that the beloved host was "cold and distant" during de Jager's appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
In April, a Twitter thread asking for stories about DeGeneres being "one of the meanest people alive" was widely shared, garnering more than 2,000 replies of people describing uncomfortable or off-putting experiences with the host.
And crew members for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" have also spoken out recently, saying they had not received any communication from DeGeneres or show executives about their pay or working hours during the coronavirus pandemic.
Representatives for DeGeneres didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
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