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Ellen DeGeneres reveals she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather

The chat show host opened up about the incident on David Letterman's Netflix show

Ellen DeGeneres has revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather when she was a teenager.

According to TMZ, the popular talk show host opened up during David Letterman’s Netflix talk show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which premieres on Friday.

The 61-year-old explained that her stepfather first assaulted her when her mother was out of town, and he told her that he needed to check her breasts for lumps.

“He told me when she was out of town that he’d felt a lump in [my mother’s] breast and needed to feel my breasts because he didn’t want to upset her, but he needed to feel mine,” she revealed.

“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 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.”

Ellen explained: “I’m angry at myself because, you know, I didn’t — I was too weak to stand up to — I was 15 or 16. 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.”

The comedian said she didn’t tell her mother at first, because she didn’t want to upset her.

She said: “I should never have protected her. I should’ve protected myself, 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.”

Ellen and her wife Portia | Instagram

Ellen added: “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. 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.”

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