Lady Gaga Opens Up About Being a Victim of Rape
Lady Gaga revealed something very personal during a sit-down talk at the TimesTalks panel, recently: she's a survivor of rape.
According to Complex, during the discussion, which also featured Academy Award nominees Diane Warren, Kirby Dick, and Amy Kiering, the pop star dished on her new song "Til It Happens to You," which she co-wrote for the new documentary The Hunting Ground, which explores, in-depth, the tragedy of campus rape. She started off, explaining that she was raped when she was 19-year-old.
"It changed my body; it changed my thoughts," she said. "When you go through a trauma like that, it doesn't just have the immediate physical ramifications on you... I don't know how to even think about it. I didn't know how to accept it. I didn't know how not to blame myself, or think it was my fault."
The singer went on to say that she once thought that because of the way she dresses, she thought she was deserving of the inexcusible crime.
"That was a big part of it for me," she said. "Because of the way I dress, and the way that I'm provocative as a person, I thought that I had brought it upon myself in some way; that it was my fault."
The singer now hopes that her Grammy-nominated song would help other victims of sexual assault realize that not only is it normal to feel that way, but there is no blame to be placed on a victim of rape.
BET.com is your No. 1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.
(Photo: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
