Lady Gaga: I Was Raped at 19

Lady Gaga was raped when she was 19 by a man 20 years her senior, she told Howard Stern yesterday. "I went through some horrific things that I'm able to laugh [at] now, because I've gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years," she said, according to the Guardian. "But ... I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself. ... I was going, 'Oh, is this just the way adults are?'" She didn't give many details, but after she mentioned that her song "Swine" is about rape, Stern asked, "Were you raped by a record producer? Was that what happened to you? I feel that happened to you."

He added, "It's a serious topic," then went on: "When you talk about depression and pain, and you're talking about rape, and you're talking about producers who have done things to you, and you said you barely got into a studio where you weren't in a weird, dangerous situation. I feel like you were raped by someone. I think that's what you're saying." That's when she acknowledged the "horrific" things she's gone through. She explained that she went to Catholic school and was "very naive." Added Stern, "And then you want to be a singer, and you're starry-eyed, and you're like, 'I just wanna sing, I love singing.' And some guy swooped in and took advantage of that." Replied Gaga, "Well, you know, it happens every day." (See Lady Gaga's latest "incognito" getup.)