It’s October, which means it’s Dakota Johnson’s birthday month.
When Dakota’s birthday fell on Monday, Twitter fans came together to commemorate the special day with an equally special interview clip.
In case you’re not familiar, her recent birthday marked two years since Ellen DeGeneres received an invite to Dakota’s 30th birthday party — still confused? Let me explain to you.
So, in November 2019, Dakota appeared for a chat on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Little did she know, however, that she was about to enter the talk show history books.
What started out as your standard interview quickly took a chaotic turn when Ellen threw shade at Dakota for not inviting her to her birthday party, which was less than two months prior.
“You turned 30,” Ellen began. “How was the party, I wasn’t invited.”
Without hesitation, Dakota ended the false claim with the now-iconic words, “Actually, no. That’s not the truth, Ellen.”
“Last time I was on the show last year, you bullshit me about not inviting you, but I didn’t even know you wanted to be invited,” he said. continued the actor. “I didn’t even know you liked me.”
Visibly surprised by the response, Ellen replied, “Of course I like you. You knew I liked you! You’ve been on the show many times and I don’t show like?”
But Dakota quickly doubled down on her position, adding, “I invited you and you didn’t come…ask everyone” before turning to Ellen’s producers for backup. They confirmed that the host was indeed invited to the party but chose not to attend.
And two years later — while fans remain obsessed with the awkward encounter — it appears Dakota has absolutely no regrets.
“People got in trouble for pretending not to be invited to your parties,” Drew said in reference to the viral exchange.
“It was amazing, by the way,” Drew continued in reference to the interview, as the audience clapped in response to Dakota’s cackles. “Like, amazing.”
And let’s just say fans quickly picked up on Drew’s sleazy reference and they love it.
“Major accessories for @Drew Barrymore for bringing up the ‘Actually no it’s not the truth Ellen’ incident on her today show with Dakota Johnson,” someone else added. “I almost spit my coffee out .”
Major props to @DrewBarrymore for bringing up the “Actually no it’s not the truth Ellen” incident on his Today Show with Dakota Johnson. I almost spit out my coffee.
And Dakota has since been praised by fans for ‘catalyzing Ellen’s downfall’ after it was announced that The Ellen Show would end following a series of allegations about “toxicity” in the workplace.
In case you missed it, in May of this year, Ellen announced that the show’s 19th season would be its last, framing the decision around the schedule no longer being a creative challenge.
However, the choice to end the show came shortly after his ratings plummeted following allegations of toxic work, which surfaced in July 2020.
BuzzFeed News reports numerous allegations from current and former employees, including that three of the show’s executive producers oversaw a workplace culture where sexual harassment and inappropriate touching were rampant. These allegations then triggered an internal investigation by WarnerMedia.
Shortly after the investigation, Ellen responded to the allegations in a letter to employees where she took responsibility and later announced that executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman had been fired.
However, his apology was not enough to mend the show’s tarnished reputation, and eventually ratings plummeted and the show began losing advertisers.
In fact, YouTuber Nikkie De Jager spoke out last year by revealing that she had a bad experience with Ellen when she appeared on the show in 2020 to talk about her viral exit video.
On a Dutch talk show, Nikkie claimed Ellen wasn’t as nice as she had hoped and didn’t even greet her when she arrived.
And so, Ellen’s Show is currently halfway through her final tour, welcoming guests like Jennifer Aniston and Kim Kardashian who came to bid farewell to the show.
Something tells us Dakota won’t be joining in to say goodbye, though.
