Los Angeles, Sep 13 (IANS): Singer Alanis Morissette took "years in therapy" to realise she was a victim of multiple incidents of statutory rape when she was just 15.

The 47-year-old singer said in new documentary 'Jagged', "I'm going to need some help because I never talk about this. It took me years in therapy to even admit there had been any kind of victimisation on my part," the Washington Post newspaper reports.

"I would always say I was consenting, and then I'd be reminded like 'Hey, you were 15, you're not consenting at 15.' Now I'm like, 'Oh yeah, they're all paedophiles. It's all statutory rape," she added.

The 'Ironic' hitmaker, who has Ever, 10, Onyx, five, and Winter, two, with her husband Mario 'Souleye' Treadaway, didn't name her reported abusers, she said she had issued calls for help but music industry figures ignored her.

She said: "I did tell a few people and it kind of fell on deaf ears. It would usually be a stand-up, walk-out-of-the-room moment."

Morissette hit out at those who would criticise her for only speaking out now, saying it is often the case that women aren't heard when they do try to explain what they have been through.

She said: "You know a lot of people say 'Why did that woman wait 30 years? And I'm like f*** off. They don't wait 30 years. No one was listening or their livelihood was threatened or their family was threatened."

"The whole, 'Why do women wait' thing? Women don't wait. Our culture doesn't listen."

The 'You Oughta Know' singer, who was 15 when she signed her record deal, said unwanted sexual advances were common right from the early days of her career.

Referring to a filmmaking shot which suggests tension, she said: "Almost every single person that I would work with, there would be some turning point where the camera would go Dutch angle.

"(It would) either end the relationship or then there'd be just some big secret that we'd keep forever."