Ellen DeGeneres Opens Up About Being Sexual Assaulted By Her Step-Father At 15
Ellen DeGeneres is one of the privileged guests for season two of Netflix's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman. Ellen, who's used to asking the majority of questions on her self-titled talk show switched things up by being the one to answer more questions than ever before. The 61-year-old revealed a traumatic moment in her life, detailing how her step-father sexually assaulted her when she was 15.
Ellen's mother, Betty DeGeneres, married “a very bad man” when Ellen was a teenager. After some time, Ellen's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to get one of her breasts removed. Her step-father used that information to assault Ellen.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
“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 on the show, ETC details. “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.”
Ellen even recalled a time where her step-father broke down her door but she kicked her window out and escaped, knowing something worst would happen. “I’m angry at myself because, you know, I didn’t — I was too weak to stand up to — I was 15 or 16,” she added. “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.”
Ellen's mother didn't believe her and stayed with the "very bad man" for 18 years. Finally, after he changed his story so many times Ellen's mother left him.
Christopher Polk/Getty Images
"I always have taken care of her my whole life. So I just kept taking care of her. I didn’t really let it get to me. Until recently, I kind of went, ‘I wish I would have been better taken care of. I wish she would have believed me.’ And she’s apologetic, but, you know…”