"That's another thing that, you know, I'm angry at myself because....I was too weak to stand up—I was 15 or 16 and...I mean, it's a really horrible, horrible story and the only reason I'm actually gonna go into detail about it is because I want other girls to not, you know, ever let someone do that," Ellen said.
Ellen DeGeneres opens up about her stepdad sexually assaulting her as a teen
This is heartbreaking.
- by
Bianca Mastroianni
Ellen DeGeneres has revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her stepdad when she was a teenager.
During an interview on David Letterman's Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Ellen says that her mother Betty DeGeneres remarried "a very bad man" who used to hurt her.
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"My mother had had breast cancer right after they got married," the 61-year-old star continues. "So she had a breast removed, and they had a very, very sexual relationship, which was also very uncomfortable for me. And 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.
"Again, 'cause I didn't know about bodies, I don't know that breasts are all different and...anyway, he convinced me that he needs to feel my breasts and then he tries to do it again another time, and then another time, he tried to break my door down, and I kicked the window out and ran 'cause I knew it was gonna do–it was gonna go more to something," she recalls. "And I didn't want to tell my mother, 'cause I was protecting her and I knew that that would ruin her happiness."
Ellen said that her mother "was happy with him" even though he "was a horrible man, and I should never have protected her."
"I should have protected myself," she told Letterman. "And I didn't tell her for a few years, and then I told her. And then she didn't believe me. And then she stayed with him for 18 more years. And finally left him because he'd changed the story so many times."
Ellen went on to explain that her mother did confront her stepfather "but he said I was lying."
"And then she...stayed with him," DeGeneres says. "So, that made me really angry."
"What most women do is, we just don't feel like we have a voice," Ellen said. "And that's the only reason that this is the first time I've ever talked about this to anyone other than my friends. We just don't feel like we're worthy, or we're scared to have a voice and we're scared to say 'no.'"
"That first time, he really convinced me that he didn't want to upset her, and he really felt another lump, and he really would just like...and then when I didn't let him the next time, you know, it just...he just kept taunting me and pretending like he was coming at me all the time," she shared.
"That's the only reason I think it's important to talk about it because there's so many young girls, and it doesn't matter how old you are, and when I see people speaking out, especially now, it angers me when victims aren't believed because we just don't make stuff up. And I like men, but there are so many men that get away with so much. It is just time for us to have a voice. It's time for us to have power."
Season two of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman premieres Friday, May 31, on Netflix.
If you, or someone you know, has experienced sexual harassment in any way, speak confidentially to a trained counsellor 24 hours a day:
Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
Lifeline on 13 11 14.
