’Pop superstar Lady Gaga, who wowed a grateful nation by her soul-stirring rendition of the national anthem at the recent Biden inauguration, is now singing a far more personal anthem, one that unmasks a rape and by a music producer at the start of her career.
Appearing in a segment of “The Me You Can’t See,” a new series produced for Apple TV+ by Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry, the 35-year-old diva revealed the trauma she encountered 16 years earlier when an unnamed producer raped her and left her pregnant.
The assault, she says, caused her to have a “total psychotic break” that forced her to cancel concert appearances in her Joanne World tour four years ago. “For a couple of years, I was not the same girl,” she told an interviewer for the docuseries that aims to highlight mental-illness issues in the world of celebrity.
Lady Gaga, whose original name was Stefani Germanotta, recounted in an emotional segment how the predatory producer threatened to burn her music if she did not take off her clothes for him. Describing the incident, she said, “I understand the #Metoo movement. I understand that some others feel really comfortable with this, and I do not. I do not ever want to face that person again. This system is so abusive; it’s so dangerous.”
The singer described how she underwent extensive medical exams for her chronic pain before she was ultimately diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She’d first revealed details of the rape in 2014, in a radio interview with Howard Stern.
“The way that I feel when I feel pain is how I felt after I was raped,” she recalled. “I’ve had so many MRIs and scans. They don’t find nothing, but your body remembers.”
In her interview, Lady Gaga also revealed her motivation for revealing the intimate details of her journey. “[I’m] trying to make sure I give back with that experience, instead of, I don’t know, locking it away and faking it.”
Or, to put it another way, is Lady Gaga simply hoping to take up her rightful residence in the land of the free and the home of the brave?