Pop singer reveals she was sexually assaulted as a teen

Superstar Lady Gaga opened up about a traumatic experience from her past in an interview earlier today.

The singer was discussing her song Swine on The Howard Stern Show when the issue came up. "The song is about rape," she told TV host Howard Stern. "The song is about demoralisation. The song is about rage and fury and passion, and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release."

When Howard pushed for details of the singer's experience, Gaga laughed the question off at first before revealing some details about the incident, which happened in her late teens.

"My music's been wonderful for me. But, you know, I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself," she said. "To be fair, I was about 19. I went to Catholic school and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, 'Oh, is this just the way adults are?'…I was very naïve."

The Fame singer said that she "wasn't even willing to admit that anything had even happened" at first, and that it took years before the impact of the incident really came to light. 

"It didn't affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later," she told Howard. "It hit me so hard. I was so traumatised by it that I was like, 'Just keep going.' Because I just had to get out of there."

The star also opened up about her struggles with mental health and addiction. "When my life got more and more stressful, it was like I was just smokin' and drinkin' and poppin'—anything I could do to just chill out," she said. "Now I meditate…I do yoga."

Despite the trauma, the singer says she has since moved on and doesn't want her past to define her. "I'll be damned if somebody's gonna say that every creatively intelligent thing that I ever did is all boiled down to one d**khead who did that to me," she said in the interview.

We're glad Gaga found the strength to discuss the incident. 

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, please visit the Rape Crisis Centre.