Lady Gaga Was Raped by a Music Producer at 19

Lady Gaga revealed to Howard Stern that a music producer raped her at 19. The man was 20 years older and “It didn’t affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later.” She went on, “It hit me so hard. I was so traumatized by it that I was like, ‘Just keep going,’ because I just had to get out of there.”

“Swine” off 2013’s Artpop was her way of dealing with the sexual assault. Lady Gaga also said her act at South by Southwest, where performance artist Millie Brown vomited colored paint on her, was her sending a message to the guy who raped her. “I want this chick to throw up on me in front of the world, so that I can tell them, ‘You know what? You could never, ever degrade me as much as I degrade myself, and look how beautiful it is when I do.'”

Gaga never confronted her attacker explaining “it would paralyze me.” Makes sense. I’ve never been raped, but if I was violently assaulted, I wouldn’t want to face my attacker either. What am I going to say to them? “Hey, bro. I need to talk about why you forcefully shoved your penis in my butt at that party.” Yea, no. I’ll just pretend like it never happened.