Ellen DeGeneres reveals she had 3 cannabis drinks before driving wife to ER

Ellen DeGeneres conceded on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Tuesday night that she had been drinking cannabis beverages — legal in California, where she lives — before driving her wife, Portia de Rossi, to an emergency room last month for what turned out to be acute appendicitis.

"I hate pot, I really hate the way it feels," daytime talk-show host DeGeneres, 63, told Kimmel, "so people have pushed [cannabis] gummies on me, because they're, like, 'Oh, it's nothing like that.' ... " She once tried a gummy proffered by her assistant, "and I thought I was going to die. … I was so freaked out."

Then comedian and fellow TV personality Chelsea Handler, she said, "told me about these, like, weed drinks — they're called Cann." The California-based company manufactures fruit-flavored canned drinks infused with microdoses of THC and CBD, the most common compounds in cannabis, in order to provide what it calls an "uplifting social buzz."

"So I drank one and I didn't feel anything," DeGeneres continued. "So I drank three, and then I took two, like, melatonin sleep pills," referring to a common natural remedy for insomnia. Launching into an anecdote she had told on her own show on March 23, DeGeneres told Kimmel that de Rossi, 48, had been complaining of pain one evening and was retiring to bed early. Later in bed herself, DeGeneres eventually realized de Rossi was not beside her.

"I said, 'Are you OK?' " DeGeneres recalled, "and she's, like, 'Uhhhh.' And I said, 'Baby, are you OK?' And she's moaning. I get out of bed and she's on the ground on all fours. And I said, 'You're not OK.' She goes, 'I'm OK.' I said, 'No, unless you're playing Twister by yourself, you're not OK.' So I rushed her to the emergency room."

"You drove her yourself?" Kimmel, 53, asked.

"I did," DeGeneres replied, then stammered, "I mean, I kicked in, like, my adrenaline was like — because I just had to rush her there so.

"It's probably not safe," she concluded, then added, to audience laughter, "I shouldn't be saying any of this."

"Well," Kimmel cracked, "at least you're headed to the emergency room."

DeGeneres has not commented further publicly about the admission. Kimmel on his social media posted a photo of himself and DeGeneres on his studio set, jokingly captioned, "Believe it or not, no one in this photo is high." DeGeneres commented on his tweet, "Thanks for having me."