Portia's Birthday Gift to Ellen Will Make You Weep

Photo credit: YOUTUBE/ELLENTUB
Photo credit: YOUTUBE/ELLENTUB

From Woman's Day

Ellen DeGeneres is usually the one planning big surprises for her guests. But for her 60th birthday celebration on February 1, the comedian's wife Portia de Rossi showed up with a gift DeGeneres never could have expected.

On the comedian’s Thursday talk show, de Rossi surprised DeGeneres with a birthday hug and kiss - and one of the biggest and best presents ever. The actress told the audience that when she was trying to figure out what to get DeGeneres for her birthday, she wanted to pick something related to an issue DeGeneres has cared about her entire life.

The Arrested Development star then talked about one of her wife's heroes, conservationist and gorilla researcher Dian Fossey, who dedicated her life to saving mountain gorillas in Rwanda. To carry on Fossey's legacy, de Rossi announced that she is building the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, a space to help protect the 880 mountain gorillas left on Earth today.

But that wasn't all. de Rossi explained that she had also set up the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund, which will oversee the construction of her wildlife preserve.

DeGeneres was crying, de Rossi was crying, we were all crying. But everyone started crying harder when DeGeneres summed up her amazing relationship with de Rossi in a few simple sentences: “I’ve always said when we got married Portia’s line was ‘It’s good to be loved, it’s profound to be understood.’ And she understands me because that is the best gift that anybody could have given me.” (BRB, I'm off to grab all of the tissues.)

[asset removed due to syndication rights]

Happy birthday, Ellen!

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