When Ellen Degeneres came out as a lesbian on the cover of Time magazine and in an exclusive interview with Oprah, not everyone was happy for her.

In fact, she faced a backlash from the entertainment industry and her career took a serious hit. Her self-titled sitcom was cancelled and the work pretty much completely dried up. Of course, now she’s one of the world’s biggest stars, adored and acclaimed.

In a new interview with Good Housekeeping, the comedian has spoken out about that difficult time and what she went through.

“The bullying I endured [in Hollywood] after I came out made up for the lack of it during my childhood. I moved out of LA, went into a severe depression, started seeing a therapist and had to go on antidepressants for the first time in my life.”

She described how the ordeal affected her emotionally.

“It was scary and lonely. All I’d known for 30 years was work and all of a sudden I had nothing. Plus, I was mad. It didn’t feel fair — I was the same person everyone had always known.”

Ellen didn’t give up and instead channelled her energy into improving her situation.

“Eventually I started meditating, working out and writing again, and I slowly started to climb out of it. I can’t believe I came back from that point. I can’t believe where my life is now.”

So what’s the secret to Ellen’s impressive ability to keep on going and keep being brilliant, despite sometimes receiving negative reactions from other people?

“I don’t know what people are saying about me, and I don’t want to know, because I don’t care. My motto is, ‘I do my best. You can be with me or not.'”