Lady GaGa has opened about about being raped at 19 and how the traumatic experience changed her life. The singer first revealed she had been raped as a teenager during an interview last year and earlier in 2015 she recorded the emotional song ’Til It Happens to You’ for documentary The Hunting Ground, about incidents of rape on college campuses.

Lady GagaLady Gaga has spoken frankly about being raped at 19.

Speaking during a TimesTalks panel discussion, Gaga said: "I didn't tell anyone for I think seven years. I didn't know how to think about it, I didn't know how to accept it. I didn't know how to not blame myself or think it was my fault.”

“It's something that really changed my life. It changed who I was completely. It changed my body, it changed my thoughts." When asked how it changed her physically Gaga explained: "When you go through a trauma like that, it doesn't just have the immediate physical ramifications.”

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“For many people it has almost like trauma, where you re-experience it through the years after it. It can trigger patterns in your body of physical distress. So a lot of people suffer not just emotional and mental pain, but physical pain as a result of being abused, raped or traumatised in some way."

The singer also explained that it took her years to learn not to blame herself for what happened. "Because of the way that I dress, and the way that I'm provocative as a person, I thought that I had brought it on myself in some way. That it was my fault."

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Last year, Gaga revealed she was raped at 19 during an interview on ‘The Howard Stern Show', but added she has made sure the experience doesn't define her. "I don't want to be defined by it,” the 29-year-old said.

“I'll be damned if somebody's gonna say that every creatively intelligent thing that I ever did is all boiled down to one d---head that did that to me. I’m gonna take responsibility for all my pain looking beautiful and all the things I've made out of my strife. I did that."