Oprah Winfrey says childhood rape convinced her that girls ‘aren’t safe in a world full of men’

Winfrey made the revelation in The Me You Can’t See, a new docuseries she co-created with Prince Harry

Oprah Winfrey has revealed that her experiences of rape as a child convinced her that “a girl-child isn’t safe in a world full of men”.

Winfrey spoke through tears as she recalled her trauma during an emotional monologue to camera on her new Apple TV+ series The Me You Can’t See. The television mogul co-created and presents the documentary series with Prince Harry.

The Me You Can’t See, which began streaming today (21 May), explores mental health through testimonials by a number of people from different walks of life, including Lady Gaga and Glenn Close.

In the show’s first episode, Winfrey says that she was raped for years as a child by an older cousin.

“At nine and 10 and 11 and 12 years old, I was raped by my 19-year-old cousin,” Winfrey said. “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, and I kept that secret.”

She continued: “It’s just something that I accepted, that a girl-child isn’t safe in a world full of men.”

Winfrey said that she discovered the prevalence of child sexual abuse when she opened up her own school for girls in South Africa. There, a student said that she had told her grandmother that she was being “messed with” by her uncle, but that her grandmother chose not to believe her.

Oprah Winfrey speaks about her childhood trauma in the first episode of The Me You Can’t See (Apple TV+)

Numerous other girls at the school, in solidarity with the student, then began opening up about their own experiences with sexual assault.

Also in the episode, Lady Gaga revealed that she experienced a “psychotic break” while on tour, as trauma resurfaced from the rape she experienced years earlier.

The Me You Can’t See is streaming on Apple TV+ now.

If you’ve been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support: www.rapecrisis.org.uk