Former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky-Manno Says Ellen DeGeneres 'Made Me Feel Stupid'

Ali Fedotowsky-Manno is telling all about her experience meeting Ellen DeGeneres.

The Bachelorette alum, 40, opened up about her past appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show during a recent episode of Kaitlyn Bristowe's Off the Vine podcast.

Bristowe had asked Fedotowsky-Manno whether she had ever met DeGeneres. In confirming that she had, Fedotowsky-Manno said the comedian, 66, made her feel "pretty not great."

"I hate that," the podcast host, 39, replied. "I've heard that so many times."

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Fedotowsky-Manno noted that "it’s not that she was mean, per se, she just made me feel stupid."

"I remember that when I was on her show, I was so excited to be on the show," she continued. "And I don't think she's a bad person. Sometimes I bet when you do a job like that, all day, every single day, for years, you're just kind of over it, right?"

She added that DeGeneres probably thought less of her because of her reality television beginnings.

"Here I am, this 24-year-old, famous for no reason, comes on her show, and she's like, 'I gotta talk to one of these idiots again,' you know?" the mother of two said. "I went on the show. I was dancing, and everyone comes out dancing, like, 'Hi.' And I was trying to be funny and personable. And instead of laughing with me, she was laughing at me. Do you know what I mean?"

PEOPLE has reached out to DeGeneres' rep for comment.

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Bristowe, meanwhile, said she is grateful that she never went on her show.

"I think the world protected me from ever going on her show, because they say, don't meet your heroes, and she was mine all the time. But I think it would have been really disappointing for me," she said. "Now I dislike her because of everything I've heard from very reliable sources. And again, I'm the same way, where I'm like, I get it if you've been doing the same thing and you're over it, and whatever. I don't get treating people like shit, but I get being over it."

Fedotowsky-Manno appeared on the long-running talk show multiple times due to her stints on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

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During a February 2010 appearance, she spoke to DeGeneres about having to leave the show because she couldn’t get approved time off from her job. After she explained that she didn’t properly read her leave of absence papers before joining the show and wouldn’t make that mistake again, DeGeneres flatly said, "Sure, read things."

The reality star was back on the show in May, during an appearance where DeGeneres asked if Fedotowsky-Manno was drunk when she was giggling.

In July 2020, the former talk show host was accused of creating an unhealthy and "toxic work environment" on her show. The accusations were made by anonymous former and current staffers of hers in a report published by BuzzFeed News.

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Claims included being penalized for taking medical leave, instances of racial microaggressions and fear of retribution for raising complaints. In the report, ex-employees claimed that DeGeneres' "be kind" attitude is "all for show."

Executive producers Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and Mary Connelly said in a statement at the time that they take full responsibility for daily operations on the show. "It's not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us," they said, in part.

DeGeneres chose to end her show in May 2022 after 19 seasons but confirmed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the allegations didn't factor into her decision.

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"When you're a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged — and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it's just not a challenge anymore," she said at the time.

The Finding Dory star released the Netflix special For Your Approval in September, which was slated to be the last of her career. In it, she joked that she “got kicked out of show business.”

"The 'be kind' girl wasn't kind, that was the headline," DeGeneres said. "Here's the problem: I am a comedian who got a talk show and I ended the show every day by saying, 'Be kind to one another.' Had I ended my show by saying 'Go f--- yourselves,' people would've been pleasantly surprised to find out I'm kind."

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