Ellen DeGeneres Reveals She Was Sexually Assaulted By Her Stepfather

Ellen DeGeneres has revealed she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by the man her mother married, who she called a “very bad man.”

TMZ is saying the famed talk show host reveals this information on an episode of David Letterman‘s Netflix talk show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which premieres on Friday.

“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,” Ellen reportedly says. “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.”

She continues, “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.”

She adds, “It is just time for us to have a voice. It’s time for us to have power.”