Lady Gaga was followed by rumors at the beginning of her career that she was a man, and the singer has now finally spoken about it: “I tried to be provocative in a different way.”

Lady Gaga has finally addressed why she never put an end to the rumors that claimed she was a man during the early days of her career. Speaking on Bill Gates’ new show, which premiered on Netflix, the pop star shared why she chose not to deny such claims.

The American singer, Lady Gaga (38), appeared in the second episode of “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates”, and decided to speak out about the rumors that followed her at the beginning of her career, suggesting that she was actually a man.

In 2011, she told CNN: “Why the hell would I waste my time and issue press statements about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don’t care, and neither do I.”

Now, 13 years later, she has revisited the topic.

“When I was in my early twenties, there were rumors that I was a man. I traveled the world, went on tours, promoted albums, and in almost every interview, people would tell me that there were rumors I was a man and ask me what I had to say about it. The reason I didn’t respond was because I didn’t feel like a victim of that lie,” Gaga told Bill Gates.

“Correcting the rumors wasn’t in my best interest,” she emphasized.

“But I thought about it. What about the child accused of something similar, who might think that a public figure like me should feel ashamed? Photoshopped images appeared online, and people were saying, ‘You know there’s a rumor that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?’” Gaga recalled.

“I was in situations where correcting rumors wasn’t in the best interest – I was thinking about the well-being of others. So in that case, I tried to be provocative in a different way. I tried to use the misinformation,” the artist concluded, as reported by Index.hr.