Ellen DeGeneres was the subject on the season premiere of Oprah's "Master Class" on OWN Sunday night.

The daytime talk show host is an LGBT icon, so it's no surprise that a large portion of the episode was dedicated to her experience coming out on television.

RELATED: The "Born Straight" Argument Is Not so Simple

Though not every person who has come out can relate to the scrutiny of doing so in the public eye, almost every out person can relate to the pressure it takes to just say the words.

When you’re gay, you don’t say to someone “I’m gay.” You’re not in a gay bar... and you don’t have to say it, because they’re gay too, so those words never come out of your mouth. - Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen talked openly about the difficulties of pioneering the media landscape for an out comedian, specifically why she thought it would never happen—not even for her.

But after taking a class on the subconscious mind, Ellen said she couldn't handle the shame of living in hiding anymore.

Ellen says that she didn't anticipate that her decision to come out on TV would be so important to so many people, but that she had to do the right thing for herself.

But when it came time for Ellen to actually say the words "I'm gay" in front of a studio audience with the cameras rolling, the right thing to do wasn't the easy thing to do.

For a while—and you can see when I said it on the show—even during rehearsal when we rehearsed it. Every single time I said "I’m gay" I would start crying.

The comedian believes one of the reasons those two words are so hard to vocalize is because society has convinced LGBT people that they are wrong in their honest thinking.

Ellen's coming out moment is a source of courage for members of the LGBT community, but the comedian reflects on the experience with humility:

I’m not fearless. I didn’t do it because I’m fearless, I did it in spite of the fact that I was scared to death, in spite of the fact that I cared deeply what people thought of me.

You can see the full segment of Ellen's "Master Class" below.