Busy Philipps Opens Up To Ellen Degeneres About Her Rape At Age 14

After revealing in an Instagram post that she was raped at age 14, Busy Philipps opened up to Ellen Degeneres about why she chose to share her experience publicly.

"I was so moved by [Dr. Ford’s] bravery," Philipps said during an appearance on The Ellen Show on Wednesday. And it wasn’t something that I felt like I was ever going to blast out on social media, but when I saw her standing there, speaking her truth after 30 years, I was like, 'It’s been 25 [years] for me and I can do this. I can do this. We can all do this,'"

She added: "And I feel like it’s, politically whatever you believe, I feel like it’s a real moment of reckoning for women that we have, sort of collectively, carried this burden for so long and it’s time to share it and let it out. It was hard. And really scary."

"This is me at 14. The age I was raped," Philipps originally wrote in her Instagram post. "It's taken me 25 years to say those words. I wrote about it in my book. I finally told my parents and sister about it 4 months ago. Today is the day we are silent no more. All of us. I'm scared to post this. I can't imagine what Dr. Ford is feeling right now."

DeGeneres revealed that she, too, is a survivor, telling Philipps, "I was 15 and I had something happen to me. When I watched Dr. Ford, anyone who’s had something happen to them, you just get so angry when someone doesn’t believe you or says, 'Why did you wait so long?' It’s because we’re girls and we’re taught not to say anything and go along with it."

Philipps, who wrote about her rape in her upcoming book, This Will Only Hurt A Little, said she grappled with telling her story for a long time.

"I’ve struggled with it for so long," she said. "For so long. And even when I wrote the chapter in my book I had in my head an escape plan, which was it doesn’t have to go into the book if I panic and don’t want to put it out into the world. But I feel like we’re at this moment in time."