Lady Gaga revealed that she didn’t think “fixing” the rumour that she was a man was in the “best interest” of others.
The “Bad Romance” hitmaker shared why she avoided addressing the claim during the early years of her career.
“The reason I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim of that lie,” Gaga told Bill Gates in his new series, “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates,” which aired on Netflix Wednesday. “But I thought about, what about a kid that’s being accused of that? They might think that a public figure like me would feel shame.”
In Gates’ new show, which addresses “the world’s most pressing issues,” Gaga explained that the rumour started in the 2010s after a doctored image of her went viral online.
“There was this imagery on the internet that had been altered, and people were like, ‘You know, there’s this rumour that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?’” the Grammy winner recalled.
During her rise to fame, the 38-year-old A Star is Born actress sought to change the narrative when asked the question.
“I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumour wasn’t in the best interest of others’ well-being,” she told Gates. “So, in that case, I tried to be thought-provoking and disruptive in another way. I used the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”
Gaga had previously dodged the question during a 2011 interview with Anderson Cooper.
“Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis?” the singer, then 24, remarked. “My fans don’t care, and neither do I.”
Earlier in the same interview, she joked about the rumour, saying, “Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible?”
Fans praised the Telephone songstress on Wednesday after her comments in What’s Next? began circulating on social media.
“Truthfully, her level of eloquence, long-term strategy, empathy, and outright bravery is remarkable,” one admirer gushed on Instagram, while another wrote, “And that’s why Gaga is MOTHERRRR [sic].”
During her conversation with Gates, Gaga also highlighted that her performances are “more real” than any online rumours.
“People, I think, assume that someone like me who performs—that my performance is what’s not real. That’s the most real thing you’ll see about me,” she said.
“That is so much more real than all of the rumours that orbit me for more clicks.”
