They were the Hollywood A-listers whose decision to start a new life in the Cotswolds saw them buy a £22million farmhouse – only to discover its grounds were prone to flooding.So Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi quickly put their new home up for sale and instead bought a £37million super-mansion nearby.But when they couldn’t find a buyer for the first property, they secretly negotiated to sell their second home to a tech billionaire instead – and reverted to their original plan of life on a farm, the Daily Mail has learned.We reveal today for the first time a number of extraordinary details about their property deals – including the astonishing amounts that have changed hands and the identity of the billionaire buyer.As one local property expert told us: ‘This is incredible. Something like £100million has changed hands in just two years simply because Ellen and Portia don’t seem to have been able to decide which house they liked better.’The saga began in June 2024 when Ellen was rethinking her life following the cancellation of her long-running US chat show amid bullying allegations – and began looking to start a new life in Britain.And she specifically liked the Cotswolds, the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty loved by celebrities like Sir David Beckham and Jeremy Clarkson.Ellen and partner Portia, 68 and 53, quickly settled on Kitesbridge Farm, a magnificent traditional seven-bedroom farmhouse in Asthall near fashionable Burford. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s first property, Kitesbridge Farm in Asthall, was prone to flooding They paid £15million for the seven-bedroom property, and spent a further £7.5million on renovations and modernisation The interior of Kitesbridge Farm with high ceilings and wooden beams The pair relocated to the UK following the fallout over claims of bullying on Ellen’s talk showThey agreed a deal to buy the 43-acre estate for £15million and then spent a further £7.5million on renovations and modernisation.Then, when Donald Trump won a second presidential term that November, the liberal-minded couple decided the very next day to move to their new home in England permanently.But just weeks after they moved in, Storm Bert swept across the UK – and their new grounds were flooded.When Storm Claudia followed soon after, the nearby River Windrush, a tributary of the Thames, burst its banks and again they found themselves surrounded by flood water, virtually marooned for days on end.Disillusioned by their first British winter on the farm, they began to explore alternatives – and soon found a very different property nearby.The ultra-modern minimalist house nearby was, crucially, set on higher ground than Kitesbridge Farm and not close to a river.And money was clearly no object: the Daily Mail can reveal for the first time that the couple paid an astonishing £37.2million for the mansion.Ellen and Porita moved into that mansion last February and immediately began documenting their lives there in a series of wholesome social media posts – raising chickens in the garden, photographing rainbows and the like.At the same time the couple put their now vacant farmhouse on the market for £22.5million – a price increase to reflect their round of improvements – but struggled to find a buyer.And so this spring Ellen and Portia took the extraordinary decision to change which house they were selling: Kitesbridge Farm was de-listed while the property they occupied was quietly put on the market instead.And a few weeks ago a deal was agreed to sell it – to Magnus Rausing, an heir to the famous Tetra Pak industrial billions, for £35.5million. The ultra-modern minimalist house nearby was, crucially, set on higher ground than Kitesbridge Farm and not close to a river Ellen and Portia paid £37.2million for the property and put their flood-prone home up for sale The modern design of their second home contrasts against the rustic feel of Kitesbridge Farm Ellen posted insights into her rural life, including this snap of a sheep wandering into the house Ellen and Portia have seemingly had a tough time with the UK property marketMeanwhile Ellen and Portia were apparently falling back in love with their original farmhouse – having seemingly convinced themselves that, as the house itself has never actually flooded, a few weeks of muddy surrounding fields each winter are a small price to pay for such a setting.And last month West Oxfordshire District Council granted them planning permission to build new stables at the property.In support of their application representatives for the couple told how ‘one of their passions is horses and although the building group [the farmhouse and its outbuildings] is large, there is no provision for horses or for their training and bringing up’.And the application said the couple had ‘carried out a successful renovation of the house last year and wish to make this their long-term home’.A Cotswolds estate agent source told us: ‘Ellen and Portia effectively spent £37million plus stamp duty and moving costs and all the rest only to almost immediately change their minds and end up back where they started. I have never seen anything like this before.’Buyer Magnus is a venture capitalist and ‘angel investor’ whose capital comes from the fortune amassed by the family since his great-grandfather Ruben Rausing founded the Tetra Pak packaging brand in Sweden in 1951.Magnus, who until now has been based in London, is said to have intentionally maintained a low public profile while transitioning the family wealth into early-stage startup investments.His current projects include investing in eco-cleaning firms, sustainable technologies, and a media company. He also serves on several corporate and advisory boards. Magnus Rausing is the great-grandson of Ruben Rausing, who founded the Tetra Pak packaging brand in Sweden in 1951Magnus graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in 2015, followed by a Master of Arts in 2017. He began his professional career in New York, working in Mergers and Acquisitions at the investment bank Rothschild & Co between 2017 and 2018.He is the son of Jörn Rausing, a billionaire based in Surrey, who is a director of Ocado.The family gained global notoriety in 2012 when Magnus’s cousin once removed, Sir Hans Rausing, a drug addict, was found to be living in a mansion in Mayfair with the corpse of his fellow addict wife, after she died of an overdose two months earlier.