Ellen DeGeneres Details Sexual Abuse at Hands of Stepfather

She tells story to David Letterman on Season 2 of his talk show
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2019 9:56 AM CDT
Ellen DeGeneres Details Sexual Abuse at Hands of Stepfather
In this Jan. 18, 2017, photo, Ellen DeGeneres speaks at the People's Choice Awards in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision/AP)

Speaking with David Letterman on an upcoming episode of his talk show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, fellow talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres got emotional when discussing the sexual assault she endured as a teen. After her mother, Betty, got remarried to "a very bad man," Betty was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ellen's stepfather "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 said on the show, per ETOnline. She says she was only 15 or 16 and "too weak" to stop him. DeGeneres had previously revealed that she was sexually abused as a teen, in 2005. She spoke out about it again, though without going into detail, during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.

"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," she told Letterman. "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. 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." The second season of Letterman's show premieres Friday on Netflix. Also featured this season: Kanye West talking about his experience with bipolar disorder, per the Grio. (More Ellen DeGeneres stories.)

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