While speaking with David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres revealed her stepfather sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.
The beloved talk show host sat with Letterman for the second season of his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction and detailed her stepfather waited until her mother, Betty DeGeneres was out of town to assault her.
The Emmy award winner said she was about 15 or 16 years old when her stepdad told her he needed to feel her breasts because he’d found a lump in her mother’s breasts and needed to check hers.
DeGeneres, 61, said she’s still angry with herself for not standing up to him whom she described as a “very bad man.”
“We [women] just don’t feel like we’re worthy, or we’re scared to have a voice, and we’re scared to say no … 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.”
DeGeneres says it bothers her when women come forward about their sexual assault experiences and are shamed or worse, blamed. However, she said the only reason she’s opening up about her sexual assault is to hopefully encourage other women to do the same.
“It’s a really horrible, horrible story and the only reason I’m actually going to go into detail about it is because I want other girls to not ever let someone do that.”
Season 2 of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction will stream on Netflix May 31.
