Portia de Rossi "discouraged" Ellen DeGeneres from returning to stand-up comedy.
The 45-year-old actress thinks her wife is "brilliant" on stage but she worried about how the 60-year-old star would deal with tackling comedy gigs alongside her daytime talk show.
She admitted to People magazine: "I shouldn’t say this, but the truth is, I was kind of discouraging her from going back to stand-up. Not because she is not brilliant at it, but she has a job … right?! And it is a full-time job.
"She is so busy, and I knew that having to write her own material for an hour stand-up special, and travel with it, was going to be exhausting.
"So I was suggesting that she put it on hold until she was done with her talk show, but, my wife is very impatient, and, a little like me, once she has an idea she just can’t shake it, and she just has to see it through."
But the ‘Arrested Development’ actress is glad Ellen didn’t listen to her wife because preparing for her eight-gig run in August has "invigorated" her spouse – and it means she will get to see her in action for the first time.
She added: "I am happy to say that I was wrong. I was really wrong, because it has given her energy, it has invigorated her, and I had actually never seen her on-stage and doing stand-up before, I’ve seen her specials, but never in the flesh, and she is really good."
However, Portia is annoyed that Ellen won’t try out her new material on her.
She said: "I beg her! I say ‘Just practice. Just say it! Say it out loud!’
"She is brilliant at it! Of all of the things that I have ever seen her do, I am like, ‘Oh my God, This is your thing!’ "
Portia de Rossi didn’t want Ellen DeGeneres to go back to stand-up
