Madonna Recounts Rape Assault in New York: 'I Was Scared'
Madonna recently opened up about being raped in New York City before she became famous.
The pop icon, 55, dropped out of the University of Michigan in 1978 to pursue her dreams of becoming a showbiz artist however she admittedly struggled upon her arrival in the Big Apple. Writing in the November issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine, Madonna recounted her terrifying rape ordeal.
"New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back,'' she wrote in an essay published in Harper's Bazaar.
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The Grammy award-winning singer, whose birth name is Madonna Louise Ciccone, moved to Manhattan in 1977 at age 19, with just $35 in her pocket. She admittedly covered her rent "by posing nude for art classes."
"I was scared s------- and freaked out by the smell of p*** and vomit everywhere, especially in the entryway of my third-floor walk-up," she recalled. "I was defiant. Hell-bent on surviving. On making it. But it was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going," she revealed.
The singer eventually did "make it" in Hollywood by going on to become one of the biggest names in pop culture. She has released 12 studio albums to date and sold over 300 million albums worldwide.
The mother of three reportedly has a net worth of $500 million, according to Forbes.
