Lady Gaga's grandmother learns about her rape after Oscars
Lady Gaga's grandmother and aunt were proud of the singer's performance at the Oscars, but they were also shocked to learn of her rape.
Gaga took the Oscars stage on Sunday to sing "Til It Happens to You" and was flanked by dozens of sexual assault survivors during the performance.
"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," Gaga wrote on Instagram with a photo of her family. "I was too ashamed. Too afraid. 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 singer said she shared a touching moment with her grandmother over the phone.
"She said to me 'My darling granddaughter, I've never been more proud of you than I am today,'" Gaga wrote. "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. #BeBrave #speakup #tilithappenstoyou."
Gaga first publicly spoke of her rape in December 2014, when she talked to Howard Stern about her song "Swine."
"The song is about rape," she said. "The song is about demoralization. The song is about rage and fury and passion, and I had a lot of pain that I wanted to release ... I went through some horrific things, and I'm able to laugh now, because I've gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years. My music's been wonderful for me. But, you know, I was a shell of my former self at one point."
She added that she was 19 when she was assaulted, and said the man was 20 years older, revealing that she didn't tell anyone what had happened for a long time.
