Basmah Qazi

News

Wed, 29 May, 2019

Ellen DeGeneres' shocking revelation: “It’s a really horrible, horrible story"

Ellen DeGeneres' shocking revelation: “It’s a really horrible, horrible story"

Ellen DeGeneres may be the brightest star to grace our television screens, but the comedian has some dark secrets of her own.

According to Fox News, the talk show host has revealed a few tragic details from her dark childhood, as she shared her sexual assault story in the hopes that it will make it easier on those who suffered under the same circumstance.

The 61-year-old appeared on Season 2 of Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman and revealed that she was molested by her mother’s new husband when she was a teenager.

Despite that, DeGeneres was also dealing with other heavy burdens such as losing a girlfriend to a car crash and struggling to come out with her sexuality in public.

The Emmy Award-winning host kept the assault a secret for years. DeGeneres said the “very bad man” asked to feel her breasts as her mother Betty had recently had a mastectomy after receiving a cancer diagnosis. He told her that he wanted to check for lumps.

“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 said.

In another terrifying ordeal, DeGeneres was forced to jump out of her window after the man attempted to break into her bedroom.

At the time Ellen never let her mother know of what was happening behind her back, as she “was protecting her and I knew that would ruin her happiness.”

But fast forward to present day and the comedian says she’s disappointed in herself for not speaking out sooner, despite only being 15-16 years old at the time.

“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 David Letterman.

However, when DeGeneres did pluck up the courage to let her mum know, she said that she didn’t believe her “and then stayed with [her husband] for 18 more years.”

Betty DeGeneres finally ended up leaving her husband “because he’d changed the story so many times.”

Through her story, Ellen hopes other victims of sexual assault will have the courage to speak out. “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,” she said. “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.”