Lady Gaga reveals rape as teenager

Lady Gaga has revealed that she was raped as a teenager and said that it took her years of therapy to acknowledge and start to recover from the trauma.

Lady Gaga, 28, said that the rape took place when she was 19 and that she has gone through years of therapy. She did not go into detail but said that the aggressor was 20 years older than her.

"It happens every day. It's really scary and it's sad and it didn't affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later," she told radio host Howard Stern.

"I didn't tell anybody -- I didn't even tell myself for the longest time," she said. "Then I was like, you know what, all this drinking and all this nonsense, you have to go to the source, otherwise it won't go away."

The singer, who later became known for her gaudy outfits and outspoken social commentary, said that she did not report the rape. She said she saw her aggressor once more when she ran into him at a store and that she became "paralyzed by fear."

Lady Gaga revealed the rape as she discussed her song "Swine" from her 2013 album "Artpop." She performed the song at this year's South by Southwest festival, where she rode a mechanical bull in a suggestive fashion and had a collaborator vomit on her.

"The song is about rape. This song is about demoralization," Lady Gaga said in her radio interview Tuesday.