In a moving interview with Ryan Seacrest on his iHeartRadio show, Lady Gaga spoke a lot about family in both good times and bad.
Her remarks started lighthearted, as she detailed how her family will help plan her upcoming wedding. The Queen Monster will wed fiancé Taylor Kinney in the near-ish future. And following that iconic Oscars performance, it's bound to be her next spectacular.
"I think if I wouldn't let my mom do this with all of us and my family — I think if I would've denied the women of my life the planning of the wedding — they would probably kill me," she told Seacrest. "I have all the help in the world in a way!"
But she warned that her wedding won’t be tabloid fodder. "We are not planning anything that is worth writing about," she said. (Note to Gaga: yeah, right.)
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But the interview then took a much more somber turn as Gaga went into more detail about her family’s reaction to hearing that she survived sexual abuse. She posted an Instagram on March 2 that said her grandmother and aunt found out about her survivor status when they saw her performance.
"There was a lot of tears and a lot of shock. And a lot of love and understanding and pride," she told Seacrest. "I have to tell you, I just felt my grandmother was so proud of me. She said, 'My darling granddaughter, I've never been more proud of you than I am today.' And it was years and years of rage that I had for not being treated like a professional in the music industry in that instance. Being violated."
She went on to say that her song was meant to remind abuse survivors that they have a lot of love and support around them.
"People who go through any traumatic experience, with so much pain, they can't even verbalize how they are feeling. I'm sure if you asked any of your friends whose loved ones are sick with cancer or someone in the family died unexpectedly, it's almost like people are silent. And with this song, I feel it’s so important… that people knew they weren't alone and feeling alienat[ed] by their pain."
Gaga’s tireless support of survivors is really something to behold. You’ll recall her matching tattoos, her support of Kesha, and the way in which she uses her engagement with Kinney to promote positive messaging about surviving abuse.
While Gaga's wedding will almost certainly be a private affair, we bet that she’ll use it as another occasion to speak out on important issues. After all, she wouldn't be Gaga if she didn't.