Ellen DeGeneres reveals she was sexually abused by her stepfather at age 15

American comedian and TV host, Ellen DeGeneres revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather as a teenager.

In an episode of Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, the 61-year-old disclosed that at age 15 by former stepfather, used her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis as a way to abuse her to sexually abuse her.

Ellen's mother Betty, who is a breast cancer survivor, did not initially believe her when she told her and stayed with him for 18 year.

She did not name her stepfather during the interview. In 1973, when Ellen was the age she was when she says the attack happened, her mother married Texas salesman Roy Grussendorf. He died in 1997.
On the show, DeGeneres recalled how her stepfather pretended to be checking her breasts for lumps when the alleged abuse began.

"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.

"Again, because 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.

"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… and I didn’t want to tell my mother cause I was protecting her and I knew that would ruin her happiness," she said.

She added that while her mother Betty is 'apologetic' about everything now, she did not believe her when she initially confided in her a few years after the incident. 

DeGeneres is now speaking out to inspire others dealing with sexual abuse.

“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.” Women, she said, “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. It is just time for us to have a voice. It’s time for us to have power.”