Ellen DeGeneres Says She Was Sexually Assaulted by Her Stepdad as a Teen
Ellen DeGeneres has opened about the sexual assault she experienced as a teenager.
The daytime talk show host recalled the heartbreaking details of her traumatic experience on the second episode of Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman, in which she recalled the "very bad man" her mother, Betty DeGeneres, married when she was younger.
She revealed that after her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, which resulted in her having to undergo a mastectomy to remove one breast, her stepdad used the diagnosis to sexually abuse her. He claimed he had to feel DeGeneres' breasts for lumps so that the same thing didn't happen to her.
“He told me when she was out of town that he’d felt a lump in her breast and needed to feel my breasts because he didn’t want to upset her, but he needed to feel mine," she explained, according to ET. He convinced me that he needs to feel my breasts and then he tries to do it again another time, and then another time."
The 61-year-old also described the violent way in which her stepdad acted with her and revealed the reason why she didn't tell her mom what was going on. “He tries to break my door down, and I kicked the window out and ran ’cause I knew it was going to go more to something," DeGeneres continued. "I didn’t want to tell my mother ’cause I was protecting her and I knew that would ruin her happiness.”
She went on to say she wants people to know the details of this "really horrible, horrible story" in hopes that it will help give other young girls the courage to stand up for themselves in the event that this happens to them.
“When I see people speaking out, especially now, it angers me when victims aren’t believed because we just don’t make stuff up," DeGeneres added. "It is just time for us to have a voice, it’s time for us to have power."