Ellen DeGeneres recently shared a painful family secret, hoping her honesty will help others going through similar experiences. She said she wishes she had been protected as a vulnerable young girl and expressed anger towards people who don’t believe survivors of abuse.
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Ellen, originally from Louisiana, became a popular comedian in the late 1970s, overcoming obstacles along the way. She got her big break in 1986 after performing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which led to more late-night appearances, club bookings, and roles in TV shows.
From 1989 to 1990, Ellen joined the cast of Open House, a short-lived sitcom, and in 1994, she became the star of These Friends of Mine, later renamed Ellen. She was excited about the show and told The New York Times in 1994 that she wanted it to be a hit. She said, “I wanted a show that everybody talks about the next day.”
Ellen did achieve that with her show, especially after she came out as a lesbian both on-screen and in real life. The show was canceled in 1998, and though it was a tough blow, Ellen also revealed she was in a relationship with actress Anne Heche at the time.
Heche later spoke about their first meeting, calling Ellen “the most ravishing woman I had ever seen.” However, the couple ended their relationship in 2000. Shortly after, Heche opened up about her past, revealing she had been sexually abused by her father starting when she was a toddler.
Heche’s brave confession was part of a painful history of abuse and doubt. She said, “He raped me,” in an interview with Barbara Walters in 2001. “It’s always hard for children to talk about abuse because it’s just memory. You don’t carry a tape recorder or write it down. Anyone can look at it and say, ‘How do you know for sure?’” Heche died in a car crash in 2022 at the age of 53.
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Ellen also knows the pain of not being believed after coming forward. In a 2018 interview with Savannah Guthrie on Today, Ellen said, “As a victim of sexual abuse, I am furious at people who don’t believe it and say, ‘How do you not remember exactly what day it was?’ You remember what happened to you, where you were, and how you felt.”
Ellen had first shared her experience during an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where actress Busy Philipps revealed she was sexually assaulted at the age of 14. Ellen opened up about her own trauma, recalling how it happened when she was around 15 or 16. She explained that her stepfather used her mother’s illness to abuse her.
Ellen shared how her stepfather convinced her that he needed to check her breasts after her mother had a mastectomy. She said, “He convinced me that he needs to feel my breasts and then he tries to do it again another time.” Ellen kept the abuse a secret from her mother for years, but when she eventually told her, her mother didn’t believe her. She said, “I should have protected myself and not protected her. She didn’t believe
