Amy Schumer tells Oprah Winfrey she lost her virginity through rape
Amy Schumer talks with Oprah Winfrey on the "Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations" podcast. Credit: Harpo, Inc./Kwaku Alston
"I Feel Pretty" star Amy Schumer has revealed that when she lost her virginity, it was through date rape by her boyfriend.
"I personally feel I lost my virginity through rape," the Rockville Centre-raised comedian, 36, told Oprah Winfrey on the "Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations" podcast and online video series. "I didn't consent. We hadn't discussed it. We weren't there in our relationship. We weren't at that moment. And we talked about things, y'know? We were open with each other."
Schumer described how "in my standup [comedy act ] , I used to talk about, I called it 'grape' -- gray-area rape.” She noted that when young people are taught about rape, "It's about a guy popping out of a bush…. They don't say it's probably gonna be a guy you know really well. It could be your husband. It could be your friend. And so … when that happens to you, you say, 'OK, well, this isn't someone I want to see … rotting in a jail cell, but what he did to me was wrong. And I didn't consent.' And for me, I lost my virginity while I was asleep, and that's not OK."
Without giving names or a timeframe, Schumer said her boyfriend had immediately realized he had done something wrong.
"The first thing he said was, 'I thought you knew,’ " she recalled. Saying she then had "to comfort him," Schumer nonetheless "felt really angry … and it's like a rage that has stayed with me. I don't think you lose that. And y'know, as women we're really trained not to get angry, because that makes people dismiss you right away. There's sort of no place for that anger. But I felt I wanted to comfort him because he felt so bad and he was so worried, and [I] just tried to push my anger down."
They eventually had consensual sex, Schumer said. "I mean, we were together, yeah." She doubted anyone would believe she had been raped. "I think nine times out of 10, people's first reaction is to doubt the woman. It's just something that men and women do. We think, 'Well, wait … what happened? We're gonna decide if you consented.' "
Schumer, who is now married to celebrity chef Chris Fischer, also described a physically abusive boyfriend, telling Winfrey, "I got hurt by accident a lot. It was that. It was he didn't realize how hard he grabbed me or shook me or pushed me. And I would fall and hit something and then I'd be hurt. Well, he didn't mean for me to hit that thing -- he just thought he was pushing me!" she said with rueful chuckle.
"I can picture being thrown on the hood of a car like it was an hour ago," Schumer added. "And running from him, carrying my shoes and running from him, running into backyards trying to get away from him because I was afraid for my life. … You're like, 'I'm not this woman. Who's this woman? Why am I in this woman's body running from her boyfriend? This can't be me.' "
