Ellen DeGenres
Ellen DeGenres with wife Portia de RossiReuters

Amid divorce rumours, talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is planning to relocate to Australia with her wife Portia de Rossi. However, the couple is planning to move just for Christmas to avoid the limelight.

According to an Australian magazine, DeGeneres and wife de Rossi, who are currently living in Los Angeles, are looking for a quieter place on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. The couple wants to spend the Christmas holiday away from the limelight, NW Magazine reported.

DeGeneres decided to move to Australia this Christmas after she "fell in love" with the country during her trip with her wife in 2013. A friend of the couple revealed that DeGeneres and de Rossi would be ringing in the New Year in Australia and thus were looking at purchasing a house.

"Ellen gets two weeks off from her show over the holidays and they're planning to spend the break in Australia," the magazine quoted the friend as saying. "They'll be looking at properties too, as they both really want to buy a place there... Ellen knows how much Portia misses Australia."

DeGeneres and de Rossi married in 2008 in a private ceremony in LA, but have lately been busy refuting divorce rumours, which gained momentum after a magazine reported that DeGeneres' drinking habits and controlling nature are causing a rift between her and her wife.

"[They] always seem to be on the verge of a breakup over one crisis or another. But now a divorce is imminent," an insider told In Touch magazine. "It was two-fold. Ellen's obsession with controlling Portia's personal life and career, and then Ellen's insistence on not starting a family. That's the biggest hurdle they can't seem to overcome — Portia wanted children and Ellen didn't," the insider said.