Ellen DeGeneres' mother breaks silence on star's claim her stepfather sexually abused her
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ellen DeGeneres' mother, Betty, broke her silence on her daughter's claims that she was sexually abused as a teenager.
The daytime talk show host alleged her stepfather abused her in a tell-all interview on David Letterman‘s Netflix talk show, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction."
The 89-year-old said that she loves her daughter and believes her.
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“I know now that one of the hardest things to do is speak up after being sexually abused," Betty said to NBC News. "I love my daughter, and I wish I had the capacity to listen to her when she told me what happened."
"I live with that regret, and I wouldn’t want that for any other parent. If someone in your life has the courage to speak out, please believe them,” she added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}During her interview with Letterman, DeGeneres admitted the man reportedly touched her breasts.
“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,” she recalled. “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.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She continued, “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.”
“It is just time for us to have a voice. It’s time for us to have power," the Emmy-winner added.