Ellen DeGeneres Opens Up About Childhood Sexual Abuse

BURBANK, CA — She may be America's most beloved daytime talk-show host, but there is one thing even Ellen DeGeneres has trouble talking about. This week, the host of "Ellen" will open up about the sexual abuse she says she suffered at the hands of her stepfather. Her painful story is one she hopes will empower teen victims to speak out.

DeGeneres will share her story on an upcoming episode of Netflix's "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman." Though it's painful to tell her story, DeGeneres says she wants teens to know that they matter, and that they should be believed.

"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," the talk-show host said.

DeGeneres first talked about the abuse she endured in 2005. It happened when she was a young teenager and her mother, Betty DeGeneres, was diagnosed with breast cancer. According to DeGeneres, her stepfather was "a very bad man," who told her he needed to feel her breasts to check for lumps, as he said he had done with her mother.

"He convinced me that he needs to feel my breasts and then he tries to do it again another time, and then another time," she said.

All of which finally led to something really scary: Her stepfather tried to break into her room.

"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," she said. "And I didn't want to tell my mother because I was protecting her, and I knew that would ruin her happiness."

Women, she said, "just don't feel like we're worthy, or we're scared to have a voice, and we're scared to say no."

"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."

The 61-year-old DeGeneres said she's still angry at herself for not speaking up sooner.

"I was too weak to stand up to [him], I was 15 or 16," DeGeneres told Letterman, according to the Los Angeles Times. "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."

DeGeneres' episode of the in-depth interview series "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction" starts streaming Friday, along with the rest of the show's second season. The other four guests this season are rapper Kanye West, actress-comic Tiffany Haddish, race-car driver Lewis Hamilton and philanthropist Melinda Gates.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.