Warning: this article contains subjects that some readers may find upsetting. Oprah Winfrey has revealed she was raped by her teenage cousin when she was just a little girl. Opening up about her past trauma on her new AppleTV+ show titled <a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-me-you-cant-see/umc.cmc.4amwght1qtt8ioilwr0mgnf6d">The Me You Can't See</a>, the legendary journalist unveiled a piece of her past that's little-known. Breaking down in tears as she recalled the horrific ordeal, Oprah said: "At nine and 10 and 11 and 12 years old, I was raped by my 19-year-old cousin, per <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9604633/Oprah-recalls-repeatedly-raped-19-year-old-cousin-age-nine.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Mail</a>. "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." [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqqpY4izBn4]] "It's just something I accepted," the 67-year-old continued, saying the experience taught her "that a girl child ain't safe in a world full of men." But, she added: "The telling of the story, the being able to say out loud, 'This is what happened to me,' is crucial." Oprah first spoke out in 1986 about the harrowing abuse she suffered at the hands of her teen cousin. She explained on her talk show at the time that she had also been abused by her mother's boyfriend. She told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/04/movies/troubled-girl-s-evolution-into-an-oscar-nominee.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a>: "For the longest time, I carried this burden around with me and was afraid to tell anybody because I thought it was my fault." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/AppleTV/status/1394287944903528449]]  Oprah and Prince Harry's new series explores mental health and the stigma surrounding it and features famous guests who bravely share their stories of struggle. Among the guests is Glenn Close, who <a href="https://vt.co/entertainment/glenn-close-says-shes-psychologically-traumatized-after-spending-her-childhood-in-a-cult" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed that spending her childhood in a cult has left her "psychologically traumatized"</a>. Close, 74, revealed that her father, Dr. William Taliaferro Close, joined a conservative religious group, Moral Re-Armament, in 1954 when she was just seven years old, per <a href="https://www.etonline.com/glenn-close-opens-up-about-the-trauma-of-growing-up-in-a-cult-166152" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entertainment Tonight</a>. In the final episode of the mental health docuseries, Close told Oprah: "It was basically a cult. Everybody spouted the same things and there were a lot of rules, a lot of control. It was really awful." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Oprah/status/1391740048232615939]] Elsewhere in the five-part docuseries, <a href="https://vt.co/entertainment/celebrity/lady-gaga-says-she-fell-pregnant-after-being-raped-by-music-producer-at-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lady Gaga bravely opened up about her harrowing past</a>, revealing she suffered a breakdown after she was raped at 19 and fell pregnant as a result. In an emotional interview for the documentary, Gaga, 35, said she was raped by a record producer, causing her to suffer a "total psychotic break". She recalled, per <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/21/lady-gaga-became-pregnant-after-being-raped-at-19-by-producer-14619865/?ito=push-notification&ci=178765&si=24597152&ai=14619865?ito=cbshare">Metro</a>: "I was 19 years old, and I was working in the business, and a producer said to me, 'Take your clothes off.' And I said no. And I left, and they told me they were going to burn all of my music. And they didn't stop. "They didn’t stop asking me, and I just froze and I—I don’t even remember." [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWevopoBmAE]] What's more, <a href="https://vt.co/news/uk/prince-harry-admits-taking-drugs-and-drinking-a-weeks-worth-in-one-day-in-order-to-mask-something" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prince Harry opened up about his own mental health battles</a>, revealing that his former drug and alcohol abuse was a "mask" for the pain he felt after his mother Princess Diana's tragic death. The Duke of Sussex even recalled how at the height of his excessive drinking, he would "drink a week's worth in one day". Per <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15023333/prince-harry-drugs-drinking-alcohol-diana-charles-documentary/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly">The Sun</a>, the soon-to-be father-of-two recalled how he was never given the opportunity to grieve his beloved mother. This ultimately led him to use drink and drugs essentially as a numbing agent. The Duke said: "I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling. "But I slowly became aware that, okay, I wasn't drinking Monday to Friday, but I would probably drink a week's worth in one day on a Friday or a Saturday night. And I would find myself drinking, not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something." If you or anyone you know has suffered sexual assault, you can contact the <a href="https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline">National Sexual Assault Hotline</a> at 1-800-656-HOPE. <h6>Featured image credit: The Photo Access / Alamy</h6>

Oprah Winfrey reveals she was raped by her cousin as a child: 'It's just something I accepted'

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