Washington D.C.: In an upcoming episode of David Letterman’s Netflix show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” Ellen DeGeneres opened up about being sexually assaulted by her stepfather. In the Interview, which is scheduled to air on Friday, the American comedian and talk show host, spoke about being sexually assaulted by her mother’s then-husband when she was a teen, CNN reports.
The assault started after her mother, Betty, was diagnosed with breast cancer. “He told me when [my mom] was out of town that he’d felt a lump in her breast and needed to feel my breasts. 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 recalled.
This was not the first time Ellen exposed this part of her life publically. She first opened up about it during an interview in 2005.
“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 that I want other girls to not ever let someone do that,” Ellen told Letterman.
She further said that she did not tell her mother right away since she wanted to protect her.
However, when she did tell her mother about the abuse, she did not believe Ellen and continued staying with her now-deceased husband.
“I should never have protected [my mother]. I should have 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 and finally left him because he’d changed the story so many times,” said DeGeneres.
