Ellen DeGeneres has ended her talk show with one last dance. The comedian’s daytime show aired its last episode Thursday after almost 20 years on the air, and she tearfully bid farewell in a final monologue. DeGeneres reflected that when the show began, “I couldn’t say gay,” nor could she say the word wife. “Now, I say wife all the time,” she said, drawing applause from her wife, Portia de Rossi, who was in the audience. She closed the show by saying she hopes she’s “inspired you to be yourself, your true, authentic self.” The final episode came about a year after The Ellen DeGeneres Show was embroiled in scandal over allegations of a toxic workplace culture there, leading multiple producers to be fired. DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter in an exit interview the scandal was “eye-opening,” but “I just trust that that had to happen.”