Lady Gaga has once again opened up about something very personal.
Several weeks after discussing her long-time battle with depression, the artist got candid in regard to her own experience with rape as a teenager.
The admission took place during a TimesTalks session for the documentary The Hunting Ground in New York City.
“I didn’t tell anyone for I think seven years,” Gaga told the panel of women, explaining:
“I didn’t know how to 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. It was something that really changed my life. It changed who I was completely.”
Gaga, who was nominated this week for a Golden Globe Award due to her role in American Horror Story: Hotel, went on to say the awful experience changed her body.
“When you go through a trauma like that, it doesn’t just have the immediate physical ramifications on you,” she said.
“For many people it has almost like trauma.
“When you re-experience it throughout the years after it, it can trigger patterns in your body of physical distress, so a lot of people suffer from not only mental and emotional pain, but also physical pain of being abused, raped, or traumatized in some type of way.”
Because she dressed in “provocative” fashion, Gaga said it took her awhile to realize she did not bring the act upon herself.
But she at least now acknowledges that the only person to blame is her attacker.
“I’m here because when I look out onto the sea of beautiful young faces that I get to sing and dance for, I see a lot of people who have secrets that are killing them,” she told the audience in NYC.
“We don’t want you to keep your pain inside and let it rot like an old apple on your counter, you know? Just get rid of all that trash. Let’s get rid of it together.”
Amen, Lady Gaga.
NOTE: You can watch American Horror Story online to see just how incredible Lady Gaga also is an actress.