ELLEN DEGENERES and her wife PORIA DE ROSSI are fighting again – this time over real estate.
The beloved 54-year-old talk-show host, who rakes in an estimated $45 million a year, has become obsessed with buying and selling property, and that’s getting on Portia’s nerves because she wants to simplify their lives, say insiders.
“Ellen’s become a big-time property wheeler-dealer while Portia just wants to concentrate on their life together,” a close friend told The ENQUIRER.
Last December, the 39-year-old “Arrested Development” star requested they move away from the bright lights of Hollywood, and Ellen agreed to list their Los Angeles mansion. The property, which includes three guest homes and 2.7 acres of land, originally went on the block for $49 million but was ultimately bought by “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest for $37 million.
And Portia was “thrilled” when they purchased Brad Pitt’s isolated 4,000-square-foot Malibu pad for $12 million.
“Everything seemed to be falling into place,” said the friend. But the buying bug bit Ellen again by mid-May, and she dropped $18 million on a new 8,500-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion.
“Portia says Ellen is treating their life like a Monopoly game,” confided the friend. “Ellen keeps adding properties, and it’s gotten so bad that Portia is calling her a ‘real estate junkie.’”
AS THE ENQUIRER previously reported, the couple has been at odds over a lot of things recently. They took opposite sides in the child custody battle between Melissa Etheridge and her ex-wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels. And in January, Portia blew up over Ellen’s flirting with “Modern Family” sexpot Sofia Vergara.
“They love each other a lot but can’t seem to agree on much,” added the friend. “Portia told Ellen she was thinking of holding a real estate ‘intervention’ to thwart her house-buying habit.
“She wants them to concentrate on each other – NOT property.”
