Lady Gaga explains why she ignored early rumours of being a man: “I didn’t feel like a victim”

Lady Gaga has explained why she ignored rumours early in her career that she was secretly a man.

READ MORE: ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ review: Lady Gaga shines in a provocative prison musical

The singer, songwriter and actor spoke about her decision with Bill Gates in his series What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates, recounting speculation about her sex shortly after the release of her breakthrough 2008 debut ‘The Fame’.

“When I was in my early 20s there was a rumour that I was a man,” she told Gates. “I went all over the world. I travelled for tours and for promoting my records and almost every interview I sat in they said… there was this imagery on the Internet that had been doctored… they’d say, ‘There’s rumours that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?’”

Gaga went on to explain that she never answered the question as “I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie,” adding: “I thought: ‘What about a kid who is being accused of that, who would think that a public figure like me would feel shame?’

“I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumour was not in the best interest of the wellbeing of other people. In that case, I tried to be thought provoking and disruptive in another way. I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”

She also added that “I’ve been used to lies being printed about me since I was 20 years old. I’m a performer. I think it’s kind of funny.”

Lady Gaga in September 2024. (Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

The interview comes after Gaga recently reacted to an infamous Facebook group claiming she’ll “never be famous”. The group was created by her ex-classmates at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, which she briefly attended from 2003-2005 until dropping out to pursue music.

Responding to a TikTok video of the Facebook group, Gaga wrote: “Some people I went to college [with] made this way back when. This is why you can’t give up when people doubt you or put you down—gotta keep going.”

Gaga has continued to tease her highly anticipated seventh studio album, recently confirming that the record’s first single is set to drop sometime next month. Fans have also spotted Gaga filming at the Louvre in Paris, speculating that she was filming a music video for her seventh album.

She will also appear in Joker: Folie à Deux alongside Joaquin Phoenix, which NME rated four-stars: “Phoenix is fantastic once again as Arthur, delivering a compelling and remarkably physical performance that teeters on the edge of insanity throughout – it’s simultaneously chilling and unexpectedly moving.

“Lady Gaga is equally good as Harleen, sparking palpably insane chemistry with Phoenix.”

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