After Ellen opened up to David Letterman about her traumatic experience at the hands of her stepfather, Betty DeGeneres issues a statement praising her daughter for speaking up.
- June 1, 2019
AceShowbiz - Ellen DeGeneres' mother regrets not paying attention to the comedienne's sexual abuse allegations against her stepfather when she was a teenager.
Betty DeGeneres released a statement on Friday, May 31, praising the TV host for speaking up about the incident, which involved her husband at the time.
"I know now that one of the hardest things to do is speak up after being sexually abused," she shared to NBC News.
"I love my daughter, and I wish I had the capacity to listen to her when she told me what happened."
Betty continued, "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."
Ellen, 61, opened up about the traumatic experience during an interview with David Letterman for the second season of his Netflix series, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman".
The "Finding Dory" star claims her stepfather used Betty's breast cancer diagnosis and the fact that she had to undergo a mastectomy to sexually assault Ellen when she was 15 years old.
"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," Ellen told Letterman.
"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."
