More than 50 years after Oprah Winfrey suffered childhood trauma from being raped by her cousin, she still breaks down in tears at the harrowing memory.
Winfrey, 67, went into detail over that excruciating chapter in her life in the Apple+ show “The Me You Can’t See” that focuses on mental health.
“At nine and 10 and 11 and 12 years old, I was raped by my 19-year-old cousin,” she said, according to USA Today. “I didn’t know what rape was. I certainly wasn’t aware of the word. I had no idea what sex was, I had no idea where babies came from, I didn’t even know what was happening to me,” she said on the show.
“It’s just something I accepted,” she said, adding that the episode taught her “that a girl child ain’t safe in a world full of men.”
“The telling of the story, the being able to say out loud, ‘This is what happened to me,’ is crucial.”
Winfrey first publicly revealed she was raped as a teen back in 1986 on her groundbreaking eponymous talk show. She has never named her accuser.
”For the longest time, I carried this burden around with me and was afraid to tell anybody because I thought it was my fault,” Winfrey told the New York Times later that year.
Winfrey also revealed that she was physically abused at the hands of her grandmother. “It is because I was raised poor, and no running water, and going to the well, and getting whippings that I have such compassion for people who have experienced it,” she told the “Today” show on Friday.
“It has given me a broader understanding,” Winfrey continued, “and a deeper appreciation for every little and big thing that I now have.”
