“I felt so ruined so young by him. I had to tell the truth.” Interview by Decca Aitkenhead. Plus, read an exclusive extract from her new book The Apology.

ve Ensler has waited for an apology from her father for most of her life. “How many years did I dream my father was going to one day wake up and understand what he had done?” she smiles sadly. “How many years have I been waiting for that moment?” As a child, she used to try apologising to him. “I thought if I go first, then he’ll give it up. But it was a fantasy, of course. He adored my apologising; it was the proof that everything he said about me was right.” As a young woman, she tried challenging him about what he’d done to her. “But it was very hard to confront my father, because my father was always angry, always scary, always…