Lady Gaga discussed her struggles coping with the effects of being assaulted as a teenager on Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry's upcoming Apple TV+ docuseries about mental health. In The Me You Can't See, Lady Gaga will take audiences into her deepest hours.
Superstar Lady Gaga Speaks about sexual assault at 19
"I was 19 years old and working in a career when a producer told me, 'Take your clothes off,' And I declined. They told me they were going to burn all of my music after I left. They didn't quit either. They didn't stop asking me questions, and I just froze and I don't even remember," Lady Gaga said, as per The Hill.
She did not reveal the producer's name, and she said, "I never want to face that guy again." Lady Gaga first revealed her sexual harassment on Howard Stern's radio show in 2014, before her appearance on The Me You Can't See.
The Grammy and Oscar-winning singer is featured in the first episode of the five-part series, which was executive produced by Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey. Throughout the program, the two have interview-style chats and news magazine-style profiles of celebrities and athletes, including Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close, professional basketball player DeMar DeRozan, and mental health advocate Zak Williams, son of the late comic Robin Williams.
When she was 19 years old, a producer threatened to burn her album if she didn't strip off her clothing. According to USA Today, Gaga said of the trauma, "I had a complete psychotic break, and for several years I wasn't the same girl."
She's tried self-harm before, scratching herself and slamming herself into a wall. "It's been a gradual climb," the singer said of her mental health recovery. The Shallow singer claimed she learned techniques to help her cope with her feelings, but it took her two and a half years to get there.
Piers Morgan mocked her trauma and resulting post-traumatic stress disorder in 2016, calling it vain-glorious nonsense and criticizing her for not disclosing the claims of rape. That year, she sang Till It Happens To You, a song she co-wrote with Diane Warren for the 2015 sexual harassment documentary The Hunting Ground at the Oscars alongside 50 sexual assault survivors.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2020, the American pop star said she never dealt with it, and all of a sudden, she began to feel incredibly crushing pain throughout her entire body that mimicked the sickness she had after she was abused.
Lady Gaga elaborated on the abuse in The Me You Can't See, describing it as an "absolute psychotic break." She released her debut album The Fame just two years after being assaulted and has since had five other No. 1 albums in the United States.
A producer allegedly dropped off Lady Gaga pregnant on a street
Lady Gaga has admitted that after being assaulted by an unnamed producer 20 years her senior, she got pregnant and had a "complete psychotic break." Stefani Germanotta, in everyday life, said she went to a hospital for chronic pain many years after being abused and was shocked to be seen by a psychiatrist rather than a medical doctor.
Years later, after going to the hospital for chronic pain, she was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, said the Poker Face singer. In 2016, she made her diagnosis public.
In 2018-2019, the artist felt like a different person due to the discomfort and the lingering damage from the abuse. Lady Gaga is also battling the desire to self-harm. "Trying to make sure I give back that experience, instead of, I don't know, putting it up and faking it," Gaga, now 35, said of her recovery process, The Star reported.
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