Ellen DeGeneres says coming out as gay in 1997 was hard as she covers Out100 magazine

 Ellen Degeneres, 58, is world famous with a talk show that's one of the best in the world, but things were not so easy for her as she revealed to Out magazine how it got really tough for her after her 1997 Time magazine cover story, in which she came out as a lesbian.

Ellen who got married to her wife, Portia de Rossi in 2008 spoke with the LGBT magazine after being named 'Entertainer of the Year'.

'I was the punch line of lots of jokes,' 'I laughed at some, but I realized there's somebody on the other side of them. It's cruel. I've never liked mean comedy, but that became even more important to me after I was the brunt of it.' the 58-year-old talk show host admitted in the annual Out 100 issue.

'Before this show, I had a lot of insecurity. I wasn't sure if I was going to work again, and although I was out, I was still trying to alter myself - not dressing the way I wanted to dress or wearing my hair the way I wanted to. I slowly gained the confidence to be authentic.' 

And what I've learned about other people is that they strive to be authentic, too. So whether they fully support me, love my lifestyle, or love that I'm married to a woman, I think they like that authenticity, and they're drawn to it.' 

'It gets better.' 'Time is a strange thing. I was at rock bottom and out of money, with no work in sight, but one step at a time, it gets better. It gets much better than better.'

Out  100 issue  also named Tom Ford as the 'Artist of the Year', Javier Muñoz as the Breakout of the Year and transgender model, Tracey Norman  a 'Legend'.