Ellen degeneres childhood home new orleans

Part of the reason Ellen DeGeneres has attracted massive audiences and built a strong following is her capacity of being candid and open about difficult and often taboo subjects. In 2019, DeGeneres told David Letterman that she was the victim of sexual assault at the hands of her stepfather. A couple of years after her parents divorced, DeGeneres's mother, Elizabeth, remarried in 1974 and moved to Atlanta, Texas, according to Lisa Iannucci's "Ellen DeGeneres: A Biography: A Biography."

Shortly after, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she said, which her stepfather used as a pretext to touch her breasts. "He told me ... he'd felt a lump in [her mother's] breast and needed to feel my breasts," DeGeneres told Letterman. He continued to molest her, reaching a point in which she ran out of a window as he tried to break down her bedroom door, she told Letterman.

After graduating high school, DeGeneres returned to New Orleans to attend college, a decision partly motivated by her desire to escape from her stepfather, according to Iannucci. After leaving the University of New Orleans and taking up different jobs, DeGeneres began performing stand-up comedy routines for groups of friends, as Encyclopedia Britannica detailed. Her skills soon turned into invitations to perform in local coffee shops and, by the early 1980s, she was touring the country, per Britannica. In 1982, Showtime named her Funniest Person of the Year. 

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit theRape, Abuse & Incest National Network websiteor contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).