Lady Gaga said she suffered a “psychotic break” after being raped by a producer at age 19 as she was trying to get a foothold in the music industry. The popstar, now 35, gave details of the assault, which left her pregnant, in an interview for the new Apple TV+ documentary “The Me You Can’t See” about mental health and the long term effects of trauma.
“I was working in the business, and a producer said to me, ‘Take your clothes off.’ And I said no. I left, and they told me they were going to burn all of my music. And they didn’t stop. They didn’t stop asking me, and I just froze and I — I don’t even remember,” said the singer, who first revealed the sexual assault in 2014.
“First, I felt full-on pain, then I went numb. I was sick for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks after, and I realized that it was the same pain that I felt when the person who raped me dropped me off, pregnant, on a corner,” she added.
The “Star is Born” singer and actress said she suffered “a total psychotic break and for a couple of years I was not the same girl.” In a 2019 interview with Oprah, Gaga opened up about how this led to a pattern of self-harm. The assault, she said, caused “debilitating mental spirals that have included suicidal ideation and masochistic behavior.”
Gaga refused to name the person who raped her. “I understand this #MeToo movement, I understand that some people feel really comfortable with this, and I do not. I do not ever want to face that person ever again,” she said.
Gaga in 2012 created the Born this Way Foundation for people struggling with mental health issues. She said the process of healing was slow. “Even if I have six brilliant months, all it takes is getting triggered once to feel bad,” she said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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