Portia De Rossi: House Flipping Creates Marital Friction With Ellen DeGeneres

Portia de Rossi and her wife Ellen DeGeneres just made close to $15 million in a few months after renovating and selling a swanky New York home, but the stress of the couple’s penchant for buying and flipping homes is reportedly hurting their already shaky relationship.

The couple has been plagued with seemingly endless divorce rumors in recent months, including many reports that Portia finds Ellen too controlling. One recent report claimed that Portia de Rossi even filmed Ellen during a drunken argument, which she is threatening to release to show the world Ellen’s controlling ways.

Now the source of the tension between Ellen and Portia may have been revealed. Sources close to the couple say the stress of constantly buying and renovating homes is getting to Portia, who has in turn been checking out of the marriage.

The work is certainly not for nothing. The couple recently turned around their New York home in just a few months, buying it for $40 million and then selling to Napster founder Sean Parker for $55 million.

TMZ reported that Ellen and Portia immediately picked up a new place:

We’re told Parker approached Ellen and Portia late last month with the offer… he went nuts over the famous house and Ellen’s interior design. We’re told even though she never intended to flip the house, she couldn’t refuse a good deal. The escrow was all of 8 days. It closed last Thursday.

Ellen and Portia quickly snatched up the entire floor of a condo in Beverly West (fancy schmancy condo near Bev Hills) for $16 mil… combining two units for new digs. But when they want real space, they’ll go to their mega-estate is Santa Barbara.

Even though the couple made a fortune in just a few months, it reportedly wasn’t worth the stress for Portia de Rossi.

“At times Portia felt overwhelmed at all that goes into redoing a house and moving to another, no matter how lucrative it may be,” a source told People magazine. “She felt like she was doing everything herself and needed some downtime.”

Avoiding stress seems all the more important for Portia de Rossi, who in May quietly did a stint in rehab for alcohol abuse. There was no word if the couple planned to flip their new home or remain there.