Tearful Ellen DeGeneres Honors Producer Matthew Wright After His Death

Ellen DeGeneres Admits She "Really" Misses Her Talk Show During Very Rare TV Appearance

Ellen DeGeneres is remembering an unforgettable member of her eponymous talk show’s team. 

Days after the family of The Ellen DeGeneres Show's executive producer Matthew Wright confirmed in a GoFundMe that he had died at 52 in an “unfathomable tragedy," the Emmy winner expressed her grief over the news.

“Hi, everybody,” DeGeneres said in a video shared to Instagram Nov. 2. “So, Matt Wright, who was our executive producer and was featured on our show a lot, died the other day. And he was an amazing guy. He was funny. God, he made me laugh.”

“He would surprise me with things that he did all the time,” she continued while holding back tears. “He was smart and he was kind. He was a part of our show. I mean, everyone loved him. I loved him, and it's just shocking.”

And the loss was even more difficult to process considering she and Wright were working together on a project at the time of his untimely death. And while it’s true Wright and DeGeneres were a dream team professionally, the 68-year-old shared their relationship went much deeper. 

“We're gonna miss him,” she said. “He is, and always will be, the glue to our entire family at the Ellen Show.”

“And to Justin, his husband,” she continued, “and to his family, I'm so sorry, because we lost a good guy. He was a good guy.”

Photo by FOX via Getty Images, Instagram/Matthew Wright

The comedian also detailed his tight bond with Ellen co-executive producer and DJ Stephen "tWitch" Boss, who tragically died by suicide in 2022. 

“He and tWitch were so close,” she said. “So now he and tWitch are together, dancing and laughing.”

But DeGeneres wasn’t the only member of the show’s team to speak out about Wright’s passing. In fact, Andy Lassner, who also worked as an EP on Ellen, shared he was with his former colleague just “hours” before he died.

Wright had come to visit Lassner on the set of The Jennifer Hudson Show’s Halloween episode. But hours later, “he was gone.”

Instagram/Andy Lassner

“We are all in shock,” Lassner wrote on Instagram Nov. 1. “He was a brilliant producer and an even better human being. The way he looked after his mom, flying back and forth from Los Angeles to New York practically every weekend before she died, showed what an incredible son he was.”

Wright worked on Ellen for 16 years. And when the talk show ended in 2022, he shared how proud he was that the show would be a lasting chapter in his story.

“How do I even begin to sum up 16 years of my life? I’ve made so many best friends, had so many amazing experiences, met so many heroes of mine and even fell in love thanks to this show,” he wrote. “I will forever be grateful to @theellenshow for taking a chance on me and changing my life! Here’s to an amazing run!”

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