‘I’m sorry, both my for my poor judgement when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner.’
Lady Gaga is always one to be real and speak her mind, standing up for what she believes in.
That was proven today as she finally broke her silence on the allegations of sexual and physical abuse against R. Kelly, something people have been pressuring her to do.
Gaga worked with the R&B star, collaborating with him on 2013 song, ‘Do What U Want (With My Body)’, a duet she has today vowed to remove from streaming services.
While the allegations against R. Kelly were made a long time ago (spanning decades), it was the recent broadcasting of a new documentary about the singer that prompted a lot of people to take them seriously.
Kelly has denied all the allegations, and Lady Gaga herself defended him at a press conference in 2013, explaining: ‘R. Kelly and I have sometimes had very untrue things written about us, so in a way this was a bond between us.’
It emerged last week that Lady Gaga had allegedly declined to be interviewed for the 2018 documentary, and ever since there has been mounting pressure on Gaga to condemn R. Kelly, being a very vocal advocate for sexual abuse victims.
This week, she broke her silence, taking to social media to make a heartfelt statement.
‘I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering and in pain, and feel strongly that their voices should be heard and taken seriously,’ she stated. ‘As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and the video at a dark time in my life.’
She continued: ‘My intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life. The song is called “Do What U Want (With My Body)”, I think it's clear how explicitly twisted my thinking was at the time.
‘If I could go back and have a talk with my younger self I'd tell her to go through the therapy I have since then, so that I could understand the confused post-traumatic state that I was in - or if therapy was not available to me or anyone in my situation - to seek help, and speak as openly and honestly as possible about what we've been through.’
‘I’m sorry, both my for my poor judgement when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner,’ she concluded.
