Lady Gaga says she is lucky to be alive.
The “Poker Face” star has revealed that she was taking mood stabilizers to treat her mental health while filming “A Star Is Born” in 2017, and that she later suffered a psychotic break.
“I did ‘A Star Is Born’ on lithium,” the Grammy winner, 39, told Rolling Stone in an interview published Thursday.
Lithium is used to treat mania that is part of bipolar disorder, per the Mayo Clinic, as well as to reduce the frequency and severity of manic episodes. Gaga has never publicly disclosed a diagnosis.
Shortly after she and co-star Bradley Cooper wrapped filming on the 2018 musical, Gaga kicked off her Joanne World Tour. It ran from August 2017 to February 2018, and it was then that the Grammy winner suffered her mental health episode.
“There was one day that my sister said to me, ‘I don’t see my sister anymore.’ And I canceled the tour,” the “Bad Romance” singer shared. “There was one day I went to the hospital for psychiatric care.”
“I needed to take a break,” she continued. “I couldn’t do anything…I completely crashed. It was really scary. There was a time where I didn’t think I could get better.”
Gaga, however, received the mental help she needed and was feeling better by the time “A Star Is Born” received eight nominations at the 91st Academy Awards in 2019. She went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Shallow.”
“I feel really lucky to be alive,” Gaga acknowledged. “I know that might sound dramatic, but we know how this can go.”
The “Born This Way” hitmaker now considers herself a “healthy, whole person” and credits her fiancé, Michael Polansky, with helping to get her there.
Gaga and Polansky, 42, began dating in 2020. He asked the pop superstar to marry him in April of last year.
“Being in love with someone that cares about the real me made a very big difference,” she shared. “What he saw was, this is somebody that feels very far away from what they’re supposed to be doing.”
“He wanted to take care of me. And I’ve never been loved that way,” Gaga added of her fiancé. “My life was serious to him. It was not a party. He helped me see that my life was precious.”
Elsewhere during her chat with Rolling Stone, the “Fame Monster” artist opened up about “Joker: Folie à Deux” bombing at the box office.
Gaga starred in the 2024 “film “Joker” sequel alongside Joaquin Phoenix, and it received poor reactions from fans and critics alike.
“I wasn’t, like, unfazed,” she said of its poor reception. “It’s funny, I’m almost nervous to share my reaction. But the truth is, when it first started happening, I started laughing. Because it was just getting so unhinged.”
“When it takes a while for something to kind of dissipate, that can be a little bit more painful,” Gaga added. “Only because I put a lot of myself into it.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
