Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia De Rossi are playing family mortgage lender by loaning $6.3million to their siblings so they can buy their California homes

• Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have played mortgage lender to their family
• Records reveal they loaned millions to Vance DeGeneres and Michael Rogers 

We’ve all heard of turning to the Bank of Mom and Dad when in times of need, but for one family, it’s the Bank of Ellen DeGeneres.

The famed television host has been generously playing mortgage lender to family members desperate to get on the property ladder, DailyMail.com can reveal. 

The 66-year-old has become somewhat of an expert in the housing market two years after she ended her long-running daytime talk show and began concentrating on her property empire full-time.

DeGeneres, who Forbes estimates to be worth $380million, is known as one of Hollywood’s best at making millions from flipping houses – and now she’s even dishing out home loans to relatives wanting to join the property owners club. 

Mortgage documents and deeds obtained by DailyMail.com reveal Ellen and wife Portia de Rossi, 51, have lent millions to their respective brothers to buy luxury homes in California.

In 2015, the comedian gave a helping hand to her only sibling, older brother, Vance DeGeneres, 69, a comedian, actor, and musician.

Vance and his wife Joanna purchased a three-bed, four-bath house in Sherman Oaks, LA, for $1,439,000 in October that year. 

And documents reveal the couple secured the home by taking out a loan for the full amount with Ellen and Portia. 

According to the public records, the couple agreed to pay back the mortgage with interest, although the rate and length of the loan is not disclosed. 

The contract states that they will ‘keep said property in good condition and repair’.

Ellen is known to have a close relationship with her brother, who had appeared on her talk show and publicly came to her defense when she was accused of fostering a ‘toxic’ workplace environment in 2020. 

Vance’s wife, Joanna Brooks, is an actor-turned-photographer, who now specializes in headshots. 

According to her website, her photos have also appeared on her sister-in-law’s now defunct TV series, The Ellen DeGeneres Show which ran from 2003 to 2022. 

Joanna herself also photographed Ellen for the promo shot of her live comedy show, Ellen’s Last Stand… Up Tour, which began May 20 at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. 

And records reveal Ellen and Portia have been even more generous to the latter’s only sibling, Michael Rogers. 

Michael and wife Casey bought a stunning four-bed, four-bath home in Santa Barbara, complete with pool, for $4.9million in May 2019.

They took out a loan with Ellen and Portia for virtually the same amount – $4,905,420.75 – at the same time.

It’s a similar deal to Vance’s mortgage, with the interest rate and term unknown, but same conditions, according to the papers. 

Michael is co-founder with his sister of the firm General Public, which uses a groundbreaking 3D technology to print artwork. 

The company’s vision is to make art more accessible and affordable and work with over 5,000 artists, states its website.

Portia and Michael likewise have a close sibling relationship, but became even closer after her ex-husband, photographer Mel Metcalfe, ran off with Michael’s former wife Renee Kappos, who eventually married.

The retired actress spoke about the scandal in her 2010 autobiography, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain. 

‘When Mel left me and Renee suddenly sabotaged her marriage to my brother to be with Mel, Brother and I were left idiotically scratching our heads in disbelief,’ she wrote.

‘When my husband left me, my brother moved into my place… My husband ran off with his wife, so we kept each other company and we liked to go out for margaritas and Mexican food to commiserate.’

Portia divorced Mel in 1999, but forgave his cheating as she says the marriage helped her realize her true sexuality.

She wrote: ‘By the end of our first year together, despite my desire to be attracted to him, my latent fear of my real sexuality was simmering and about to boil. I was almost positive I was gay. So I married him.’

In an interview with The US Sun late last month, real estate expert Stacey Franklin named Ellen among the ‘smartest Hollywood home flippers’, who has transformed and sold over 50 houses in 20 years.

Her most recent investments include two side-by-side oceanfront lots, for a total of $70million, in Carpinteria in 2022, and a $22.5million Spanish-style property in Montecito, where she is based, last July. 

Records show that it’s the most expensive ever in the Santa Barbara area and Ellen is in the envious possession that she didn’t need a mortgage for the purchase.

She told The RIV Magazine last year: ‘I don’t really travel a lot. So, house flipping is my version of travel. 

‘With house flipping, the scenery changes though I stay in the same general area. Only in a new place and from a new perspective.’