The 'Born This Way' hitmaker says she never told her grandmother and her aunt she was a victim of sexual abuse, and they were sobbing while talking to her on the phone after her Oscar performance.
- Mar 2, 2016
AceShowbiz - Lady GaGa recently shook up people's emotion with her powerful performance at the 2016 Academy Awards on Sunday, February 28. She sang "Til It Happens to You", recorded for documentary "The Hunting Ground" about rape on college campuses, joined by numerous survivors of sexual assault onstage. It was a performance that was close to her heart since she herself was raped as a teenager.
While the Mother Monster had opened up about her bitter experience more than a year ago during an interview with Howard Stern on SiriusXM, it wasn't until her Oscar performance that her grandmother Ronnie and aunt Sheri learned of this. They were understandably shocked and called GaGa a day after the Oscars.
In a new Instagram post, the "American Horror Story: Hotel" star reveals her grandmother and aunt's emotional reaction during their conversation. "My grandmother (in the middle) and my Aunt Sheri (on the right) both called me the day after the Oscars because I never told them I was a survivor," she begins writing along with a family photo showing her grandmother and aunt.
"I was too ashamed. Too afraid," she continues, "And it took me a long time to even admit it to myself because I'm Catholic and I knew it was evil but I thought it was my fault. I thought it was my fault for ten years."
"The morning after the Oscars when I talked to my grandmother Ronnie, with tears in her eyes I could hear them welling through the phone she said to me 'My darling granddaughter, I've never been more proud of you than I am today.' Something I have kept a secret for so long that I was more ashamed of than anything-- became the thing the women in my life were the most proud of. And not just any women, the ones I look up to the most," she writes, adding some hashtags "#BeBrave #speakup #tilithappenstoyou."
GaGa revealed in 2014 that the man who raped her was 20 years her senior. "It didn't affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later," she said. "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."
Calling herself a "survivor," the 29-year-old singer is now happily engaged to "Chicago Fire" hunk Taylor Kinney, who accompanied her to the Academy Award ceremony.
