Ellen DeGeneres recounts how her astrologist predicted her daytime talk show success

The Ellen DeGeneres Show hit 3,000 episodes last week, and the titular host joined The Late Late Show with James Corden's 914th episode last night (May 4) to give credit to her former neighbor who saw all of this coming.

"She was an astrologer," DeGeneres said, "and it was during my drought—my three years of not working at all after I came out—and I just didn't think I would work again because it didn't seem like that was gonna happen. About a year into not being able to get a job, she wanted to read my cards or astrology, and she told me when I was 45 years old, I was gonna start a brand new career, and it was gonna be more successful than anything I've ever done, and it could go 20 years if I wanted it to."

The 63-year-old continued: "I was like, 'What sitcom goes 20 years?' I wasn't even thinking talk show. At 45, I started this talk show, and it has now been 19 years. She was, like, dead on. It's crazy. I mean, just the fact that she said, 'You'll start a new career at 45.' I just think that doesn't happen in this town."

The Ellen DeGeneres Show debuted Sept. 8, 2003, with Jennifer Aniston as the first-ever guest. Prior to that, DeGeneres starred as Ellen Morgan in television series Ellen from 1994-98. In "The Puppy Episode" (1997), her character came out as gay, which doubled as her real-life coming out and resulted in the industry shunning her.