Neil Breen, radio host and media executive, is claiming that he was asked not to interact with Ellen DeGeneres — at all! — when she appeared on Australia’s Today show.

“When Ellen DeGeneres came to Australia to do her show in 2013, I was the executive producer of the Today show, so we partnered with them,” Neil said on his radio show, 4BC Breakfast With Neil Breen, this week. “Originally she was going to cohost the Today show, then she was going to do this, then she was going to do that. The whole thing got watered down to Ellen DeGeneres would do a sit-down interview.”

Neil added that he and his team went to Melbourne, Australia, “at our expense” to film the segment.

“Because it’s the Ellen show, they controlled everything. They controlled the interview seats, the lights, how it would work, everything,” he recalled. “The producers called us aside and said, ‘This is how it’s going to work here this morning. Ellen’s going to arrive at 10:15, and she’ll be sitting in this chair. And Richard, you’ll be sitting in this chair here. Neil, no one’s to talk to Ellen. You don’t talk to her, you don’t approach her, you don’t look at her. She’ll come in, she’ll sit down, she’ll talk to Richard, then Ellen will leave.’”

Furthermore, Neil said that he “found the whole thing bizarre,” but he is “not blaming Ellen.”

“I didn’t get to talk to her,” he reiterated. “I wasn’t allowed to. I don’t know if she’s a nice person or not. I wouldn’t have a clue. But I can tell you, the people who worked with her walked on eggshells the whole time.”

Hopefully the world will know more about this situation in the coming months!