Ellen DeGeneres allegedly bullied 11-year-old when she was 20

Man, 52, revealed how the 'vile bully' would 'fat-shame' him and 'take pleasure' in his distress

Ellen DeGeneres allegedly bullied an 11-year-old boy when she was 20-years-old - calling him 'fat' and 'stupid'; whilst fun of his clothes and 'taking pleasure' in his distress, the now grown victim claims.

Ben Gravolet said the under fire TV host worked for his mother's recruitment agency when he was a child, and claimed Ellen would regularly subject him to biting and mean insults, reported Daily Mail.

"I would dread going to my mom's office to see her after school or on a day if I was sick and Ellen was there,' Gravolet recalled.

"She would criticise my weight. I would try to do homework in the office, she'd call me stupid, she'd call me fat. She would also criticise my clothes," he said.

"I was just a boy and this was a grown woman who took pleasure in seeing me become visibly upset. I don't think there's any excuse for it. I was a defenseless kid. What could I have told her back?" asked the victim.

"It has an effect if somebody in a superior position to you, who's much older, goes 'You're fat. You might want to lose some of that weight chunky boy.' I was always self conscious about my weight and it made things worse," expressed Gravolet.

The Belle Chasse, Louisiana-based father-of-three said in the late 1970s, Ellen worked as a recruiter in the lakeside New Orleans branch of Snelling Personnel, owned by his mother.

Gravolet, 52, who now works as a vice president of a New Orleans marketing agency, said the multi-millionaire comedian "was just the meanest, nastiest, most horrible person."

"One incident stands out in my mind," DailyMail quoted him as saying, "I was sitting beside her desk. I was drawing, and she criticised the drawings. She said 'I guess that would look nice if you could draw'."

"As I watched her meteoric rise to fame, people would say how great she was and all I could think was she must be an incredible actor because she was one of the most vile people I've ever met in my life. Who takes pleasure in giving a child pain?" he asked again, disappointed.

Gravolet's allegations follow claims from dozens of staff on The Ellen DeGeneres Show who have said that racism, bullying and sexual harassment was rife at the Hollywood studio.

The scandal prompted Ellen, 62, to email an apology to her staff – which some have labelled as 'complete bull', claiming she was 'power-hungry' and part of the 'toxic' environment on set.

Gravolet claimed that even aged 20 his mother's former employee enjoyed wielding power over others. "It appears to me that she hoards power over those that are lesser than her. It's almost as if she has to feel controlling. It seems like she has to be superior, be better," he said.

Gravolet's furious mother, Tana Robinson, told DailyMailTV that Ellen was 'extremely rude' but that she only found out about the alleged bullying of her son a few weeks ago. She further added how if she had known that that was going on, she would have "punched her and then fired her."

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