Emily Ratajkowski has called out Ellen DeGeneres for making Taylor Swift play a game that she deemed "f***ed up."
The 'I Knew You Were Trouble' hitmaker - then 23 years old - had appeared on the talk show back in 2012, where she was constantly quizzed by DeGeneres on the men she'd supposedly dated. In the clip, the host asks Swift whether she'd been romantically involved with actor Zac Efron. When Swift replied that she hadn't, DeGeneres quickly stated: "You have."
After a bit of uncomfortable back and forth on the dating topic, DeGeneres then decides to play a game with the talented singer-songwriter, whereby she'd flash up images of Swift alongside different male celebrities, and Swift would have to ring a bell to reveal whether she'd dated them or not.
Some of the images included Efron, Twilight actor Taylor Lautner, fellow musician Justin Bieber, singer John Mayer, veteran actor Danny DeVito, and even 80s heartthrob Rob Lowe. When Swift refused to ring the bell, DeGeneres snatched it off her and proceeded to ring it loudly as the images continued playing in the background.
Throughout the entire ordeal, Swift was visibly uncomfortable. "I don't want to [do it]. They'll send me angry emails, and I don't want to get them," she said to DeGeneres.
"Stop it, stop it, stop! This makes me feel so bad about myself. Every time I come up here, you put a different dude up there on the screen, and it just makes me really question what I stand for as a human being," she added.
After the video was reposted on TikTok, it subsequently went viral, and 31-year-old Ratajkowski was one of the first celebrities to comment. "This is so f***ed up," she wrote.
It's not the first time DeGeneres, 64, has been called out for making her guests feel uncomfortable, however, as allegations of workplace misconduct and toxic work environments were first brought to light by Buzzfeed in 2020.
Many former employees claimed they'd been fired after taking medical leave, and another employee told the outlet that she'd simply walked off the job after allegedly experiencing continued racial abuse. Following the report, WarnerMedia launched an investigation into the shocking allegations.
Three of the show's producers were removed when the investigation concluded, and DeGeneres was eventually forced to issue an apology.
In a letter to ex-staff members that was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, DeGeneres reportedly wrote: "I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness - no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect.
"Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry [...] As someone who was judged and nearly lost everything for just being who I am, I truly understand and have deep compassion for those being looked at differently, or treated unfairly, not equal, or - worse - disregarded. To think that any one of you felt that way is awful to me," she added.