Lady Gaga opens up about assault as a teen

Lady Gaga. Photo / AP

Lady Gaga "completely" changed after being sexually assaulted as a teenager.

The chart-topping singer was raped at the age of 19 and has admitted the incident had a profound impact on how she's lived her life ever since.

She said: "The only person in this scenario that can heal you is yourself, and that is the complicated process."

Gaga, now 29, said she kept the harrowing incident to herself for years, admitting she didn't know how to cope with the emotional turmoil.

She told Entertainment Tonight: "I didn't tell anyone for I think seven years.

"I didn't know how to even 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 was something that really changed my life. It changed who I was completely. It changed my body, it changed thoughts."

Gaga also admitted there were times she blamed herself for the attack.

She shared: "After it happened, I'm like, 'But what did I do in my life to bring this upon myself?' There was some sort of maybe religious guilt attached to it that I had somehow inspired the violence.

"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."

However, the Born This Way hitmaker said she's since turned her pain into new-found strength and resolve.

She explained: "When somebody says to me, 'Oh, that happened to you?' 'Oh, did that damage you?' I'm thinking to myself, 'You don't know who the f**k I am now! You don't want to meet me in an alleyway. What I've been through.'

"You can own your pain and it can be a good part of you."

- Bang! Showbiz