Lady Gaga Responds to Rumors That She & Bradley Cooper Were Romantically Involved

Lady Gaga is looking stunning on the cover of Elle magazine’s December 2019 issue.

Here’s what the superstar had to share with the mag…

On if she feels like she constantly has to outdo herself, specifically with regard to the meat dress: “Well, the meat dress, quite frankly, I didn’t think it was going to be as shocking to everyone as it was. But that’s just me. I have a sort of eccentric brain, so for me, I was like, ‘Of course this makes sense. I’m showing up to make a statement about “Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ I went to the event with soldiers who were discharged from the army because they were out, or they were found out, and to me, if you’re willing to give up your life for your country, does it matter what your sexual orientation is or what your gender identity is? For me, it was like, ‘Flesh is flesh,’ so that was the intention of the meat dress. For me, that wasn’t shocking; it was shocking to the world. And I have to say, it was quite recently—after doing ‘A Star Is Born’, and working with Bradley Cooper, and my experience even with winning an Oscar—I sort of just went to myself, ‘You have a much greater mission on this earth than to freak the hell out of people. Your mission is to give people a form of love through your art that lifts them up.”

On the rumors that she was romantically linked to Bradley Cooper: “Quite frankly, I think the press is very silly. I mean, we made a love story. For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars. We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on. And we worked hard on it, we worked for days. We mapped the whole thing out—it was orchestrated as a performance. In truth, when we talked about it, we went, ‘Well, I guess we did a good job!’”

On cutting herself: “I’ve actually not opened up very much about this, but I think it’s an important thing for people to know and hear: I was a cutter for a long time, and the only way that I was able to stop cutting and self-harming myself was to realize that what I was doing was trying to show people that I was in pain instead of telling them and asking for help. When I realized that telling someone, ‘Hey, I am having an urge to hurt myself,’ that defused it. I then had someone next to me saying, ‘You don’t have to show me. Just tell me: What are you feeling right now?’ And then I could just tell my story. I say that with a lot of humility and strength; I’m very grateful that I don’t do it anymore, and I wish to not glamorize it. One thing that I would suggest to people who struggle with trauma response or self-harm issues or suicidal ideation is actually ice. If you put your hands in a bowl of ice-cold water, it shocks the nervous system, and it brings you back to reality.”

For more from Lady Gaga, visit Elle.com.