On the heels of dream hampton’s six-part Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, Lady Gaga has released a statement in support of the women who said the R&B singer manipulated and abused them.
Gaga, who collaborated with Kelly on the 2013 song “Do What U Want (With My Body),” said that she is horrified by the allegations women have made about Kelly and wholeheartedly believes them. She described making the song “at a dark time in my life” when she had yet to process her own sexual assault.
“I think it’s clear how explicitly twisted my thinking was at the time,” Lady Gaga said. “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 stand by anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault: pic.twitter.com/67sz4WpV3i
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) January 10, 2019
Although Gaga noted that she’s unable to take back making the song or changed how she’s handled it in the past, she can still do something about it going forward.
“I intend to remove this song off of iTunes and other streaming platforms and will not be working with him again,” she wrote. “I’m sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner. I love you.”
According to hampton, Lady Gaga was among the celebrities who have previously collaborated with Kelly whom she asked to talk to for Surviving R. Kelly, but did not do so; John Legend and Chance the Rapper were among the few celebrities to speak out against him on the record for the docuseries.
Although many of the allegations against Kelly over the past 25 years—which include child pornography, abuse, exploiting Black women and girls, and running a sex cult—have been reported on for more than a decade, it hadn’t affected Kelly’s career. (Kelly has denied the allegations.) After the airing of Surviving R. Kelly, the Fulton County district attorney opened an investigation into Kelly’s allegations in Georgia while Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx urged those who may have been among Kelly’s victims and have information on the R&B singer to contact her office.
H/T the Fader