Lady Gaga has spoken out about a cruel rumor that previously circulated claiming that she was a man.
In 2008, Lady Gaga - real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - shot to international stardom thanks to her hit single 'Just Dance'.
She quickly proved she was far from a one-hit-wonder with follow-up chart-toppers like 'Poker Face', 'Telephone', and 'Bad Romance'.
Sadly, the more success the singer had, the more exposure came with it - and this sadly led to a vicious rumor circulating on social media and in tabloids about the star, especially after a doctored image was widely shared online.
The distasteful rumor was that Lady Gaga was born male, with some people claiming that the singer had a penis.
In fact, back in 2011, Gaga sat down for a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, in which he asked: "There was a rumor that you had a male appendage, that you were a hermaphrodite ... A lot of artists would have put out some sort of statement saying ‘This is absolutely not true’, but you have fun with it."
Gaga - skirting a definitive yes or no answer - fired back: "Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible? Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don’t care and neither do I."
Now, after more than a decade of further cementing her status as one of the greatest living musicians, Gaga has spoken out about the rumor.
Speaking on Bill Gates' new Netflix series - What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates - the 38-year-old singer and actress revealed why she never outright denied the rumor.
"The reason I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie," she said. "But I thought about, what about a kid that’s being accused of that, that would think that a public figure like me would feel shame."
Gaga continued: "There was this imagery on the internet that had been doctored and they were like, ‘You know there’s this rumor that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?'"
Speaking about why she would often tackle questions - like Cooper's - with more thought-provoking responses, she explained: "I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of — I thought of the wellbeing of other people.
“So 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.”
Just another reason to love the ever-talented Gaga!