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Ellen DeGeneres honored her late colleague Stephen "tWitch" Boss with an expression of gratitude and a clip from the final episode of her show.
"I will forever be grateful that the show ended with tWitch by my side, " DeGeneres wrote on Twitter Jan. 2. She also shared a heartfelt moment from the last episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show."
In the clip, from an episode that originally aired in May 2022, the two share how much they appreciate each other and how much they value the welcoming, warm, diverse atmosphere that the show created. And Boss, who died by suicide on Dec. 13 at age 40, talks about what it meant to be part of such a special community.
“What I’m feeling most of all is grateful and thankful ... Everybody put so much care into this show because you stepped out in courage, and we appreciate you," Boss tells DeGeneres in the clip. "And so I’m just so grateful that I got to be a part of this and be a part of this family.”
DeGeneres responds by sharing that the two say "I love you" to each other every time they say goodbye. "This atmosphere is a family," she adds.
Boss goes on to say that the show reflected "what the world actually looks like right now." Looking out into the audience, "you see people of various colors, shapes, creeds, whatever all showing love to each other. And it's been that for 19 years," he says.
The emotional clip ends with DeGeneres expressing gratitude again for the staff and fans for their support during the show's nearly two-decade run.
DeGeneres previously shared a video on Instagram on Dec. 23 about his loss. She spoke to the pain and grief that many were — and still are — feeling in the wake of his sudden death.
"Everyone is in pain and trying to make sense of it. We’ll never make sense of it," she says in the video. The best way to honor his memory, DeGeneres continued, is to "do the things that he loved to do," like dancing, singing and enjoying music.
"He was pure light," she said. "If you knew him, you knew that. If you didn’t know him, you saw it. Let’s honor him. And think about him to one another.”
