Busy Philipps is remaining “silent no more.”
On Wednesday, Busy Philipps appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and was overcome with emotion as she opened up publicly for the first time about her own sexual assault when she was a young teenager, per Entertainment Tonight .
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , after watching Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Sept. 27, that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, Busy Philipps, 39, was compelled to come forward with her own revelation of a rape that happened to her when she was just 14-years-old.
After 25 years, Philipps told her over one million Instagram followers that she had been “scared” up to that point to share her story, but realized she could no longer keep quiet.
“I was so moved by [Dr. Ford’s] bravery,” she told DeGeneres on why she chose now to come forward with her own truth.
“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 continued.
While social media may not have been her first choice in telling the world what happened to her, the Cougar Town alum has received tremendous support from her fans and admits that although “it was hard and really scary,” the “burden” of her long-kept, dark secret no longer weighs down on her.
As she spoke, her Instagram post appeared on the large screen behind her and the talk-show host. It was then that Philipps was overcome with emotion, as she said she saw her own 10-year-old daughter, Birdie Leigh, in her 14-year-old self.
After telling her how what was done to her is nothing short of “horrible,” the former Dawson’s Creek star described it as “the most unoriginal horror.”
During their conversation, DeGeneres also revealed that she too had suffered the same traumatic experience when she was just 15-years-old and although she didn’t go into detail, she did highlight her theory that the main reason why girls don’t report what was done to them after the fact, is largely in part because “we’re taught not to say anything and go along with it.”
In her upcoming memoir, This Will Only Hurt A Little , Philipps revealed that she did dedicate an entire chapter to what happened to her, but also admitted that she did come up with an “escape plan” if she truly felt she couldn’t bring herself to put it into words.
“I’ve struggled with it for so long. 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”.
However, Philipps was able to find her strength and part of that came when she finally told her family, which included her mother, about what had happened to her.
Philipps is not the only actress to have come forward with her story since Dr. Ford’s testimony. Actress Alyssa Milano, Top Chef host and judge Padma Lakshmi, and Riverdale star Lili Reinhart are also among the women who have since been brave enough to step forward, sparking the “#WhyIDidn’tReport” to begin trending on Twitter.
This Will Only Hurt A Little will hit bookstores on October 16.