(CNN) - Ellen DeGeneres has apologized to her staff following allegations that the program promotes a toxic environment.
DeGeneres sent an email to employees of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, Variety first reported . CNN confirmed the content of the memorandum with a current employee.
In the letter, DeGeneres says she is "disappointed" after the BuzzFeed reports in which past and current staff members alleged they faced intimidation and racism.
“On the first day of our show, I told everyone at our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness, no one would ever raise their voices and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously something changed, and I am disappointed to know that this has not been the case. And so, I'm sorry. Anyone who knows me knows that it is the opposite of what I believe and what I expected for our program, "wrote DeGeneres.
DeGeneres later confirmed that the show's distributor Warner Bros. Television - owned by CNN's parent company WarnerMedia - launched an internal investigation.
“Together with Warner Bros, we immediately started an internal investigation and are taking steps together to correct the problems. As we grew exponentially, I haven't been able to stay on top of everything and have trusted others to do their jobs as they knew I wanted them to. Clearly some did not. That will change now and I am committed to ensuring that this does not happen again, "he said.
A WarnerMedia statement released Thursday says: "Warner Bros. and Ellen DeGeneres take the recent allegations about the show's work culture very seriously." "We hope to determine the validity and scope of the publicly reported allegations and understand the full breadth of the program's everyday culture," he adds.
Ellen Degeneres