Lady Gaga
has opened up about her mental health battles revealing she developed post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after being ‘repeatedly raped’.
The Born
This Way singer sat down with Oprah Winfrey at the weekend for the launch night
of Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus tour, where she recounted her
horrific experience.
Speaking
on-stage at the BB&T Center in Ft Lauderdale, Gaga explained: ‘I was raped
repeatedly when I was 19 years old, and I also developed PTSD as a result of
being raped and also not processing that trauma.’
Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, said the
attacks were carried out by someone she knew from her childhood.
Explaining,
Gaga said: ‘I all of a sudden became a star and was travelling the world going
from hotel room to garage to limo to stage, and I never dealt with it, and then
all of a sudden I started to experience this incredible intense pain throughout
my entire body that mimicked the illness I felt after I was raped.’
The Joanne
singer believes it’s important to educate youngsters about mental health in
schools. Last year, Gaga apologised for working with R Kelly after he was
arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault against young
women.
Gaga and R
Kelly worked together on the 2013 song Do What U Want (With My Body), which has
since been removed from a reissue of Gaga’s album Artpop.
