Who Is Ellen DeGeneres' Stepfather? New Details On The Man The Talk Show Host Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
Ellen DeGeneres levied some heavy charges against her mother's husband.
Getty Images Ellen DeGeneres recently came clean about her own molestation as a teenager. The talk show host and media maven said that it was her mother's husband who subjected her to sexual abuse. But who is Ellen DeGeneres' stepfather?
Sexual abuse is a devastating crime, and it’s even more devastating when it’s experienced as a child. Without proper therapy, and/or an outlet in which to express his/her damage from the abuse, a child victim of sexual abuse will be negatively affected by the experience for the rest of his/her life.
Fortunately, Ellen DeGeneres was brave enough to not become a statistic, and has decided to share the full story of sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather with the rest of the world.
Here’s what we know about Ellen DeGeneres’ stepfather.
1. Ellen DeGeneres said that the abuse started when she was a teenager.
According to Scary Mommy, Ellen DeGeneres told David Letterman that she was 15 years old when the abuse started. Per the outlet, Ellen was a guest on Letterman’s Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, when she revealed that her stepfather began molesting her when she was in her mid-teens.
2. This isn’t the first time she’s talked about the abuse.
According to CNN, Ellen DeGeneres first began talking about the sexual abuse she received from her stepfather back in 2005. At the time, she said that she felt guilty and powerless because she didn’t fight back against him.
“I'm angry at myself because, you know, I didn't, I was too weak to stand up to, I was 15 or 16," DeGeneres said. "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. I should never have protected [my mother]. I should have protected myself and I didn't tell her for a few years, and then I told her. And then she didn't believe me, and then she stayed with him for 18 more years and finally left him because he'd changed the story so many times."
3. Ellen DeGeneres said that her stepfather used her mother’s cancer diagnosis to “scare” her into accepting the abuse.
According to Jezebel, Ellen DeGeneres said that her father used the pretext of her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis as an excuse to touch her breasts inappropriately. He also used her mother’s unfortunate diagnosis to “scare” her into accepting the abuse at his hands.
“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. 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, per the outlet.
Ellen went on to say that her stepfather even tried to break down the door to molest her, causing her to escape the house through a window.
4. Her experience is, unfortunately, not unique.
While it would be nice to say that sexual abuse is rare, the unfortunate truth is, it’s more common that any of us would like to admit.
According to the United States Dept. of Health and Human Services, more than half of all child maltreatment cases are at the hands of the male parental figure. And of the statistics involving child sexual abuse, the blame often falls upon the shoulders of the stepfather. 34% were charged with physical abuse only. 30% were charged with sexual abuse only. 20% were charged with neglect only. 4% were charged with emotional abuse only. And 12% were charged with some combination of the above.
These are scary statistics — and even more reason to emphasize that if you, or someone you know, is experiencing sexual abuse of any kind, to call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. It’s a 24/7 crisis hotline, and calls can remain anonymous.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. Find her online at www.bernadettegiacomazzo.com and www.longlivetheuprising.com.