Oprah Winfrey

One in two women in the United States will experience sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetimes.

Research shows that the most dangerous place for a woman is right inside her own home.

I had a conversation with this woman, Susan,

who was a mother of three who had endured 17 years of physical and emotional abuse by her husband.

We all have asked this question over the years.

Why do you stay?

Why do you stay?

And you say we should be asking the question, why is he violent?

Hi, and welcome to the Oprah Podcast.

You know, over the years, I've been talking about domestic violence for women.

We did more than 120 Oprah shows on domestic violence.

I first started talking about it in 1986.

That's when the year the show was launched.

And back then, the stats of 1986 were one out of four women

were impacted by some form of domestic violence.

And now, 2026, after all of that talking and all of those years and all that we know and women's self-awakening and self-empowerment, things have not gotten better.

They've actually gotten worse.

The current stats are one in two, one in two women in the United States will experience sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

That means if you're listening and you're not one, you know somebody who is or will be.

This is so hard to believe and so unacceptable for us as a civil society and tough to hear.