Madonna reveals rape at knifepoint
Print Edition
POP icon Madonna was raped at knifepoint when she was a young struggling artist in New York, she has revealed.
The 55-year-old also recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was “scared shitless” at times before she started making it as a singer and dancer.
In a piece for Harper’s Bazaar published on Friday, she also talked about her time living in Britain married to director Guy Ritchie, saying there is “nothing more beautiful than the English countryside,” and revealed that she is now studying the Koran.
Describing her arrival in the Big Apple from the Midwest, Madonna wrote: “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, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don’t know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.
“The tall buildings and the massive scale of New York took my breath away. The sizzling-hot sidewalks and the noise of the traffic and the electricity of the people rushing by me on the streets was a shock to my neurotransmitters,” she added.
“I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive ... I felt alive.
“But I was also scared shitless and freaked out by the smell of piss and vomit everywhere.”
The “Material Girl” singer, whose career has ranged from “Like a Virgin” to movie roles, the 1992 coffee table book “Sex,” wrote the cover story to accompany a fashion photoshoot, featuring a bondage-style mask and a sword.
She recalled being a pop star in her 20s, embracing Kabbalah in her 30s, before marrying Ritchie and moving to Britain by the age of 45.
“I consider moving to a foreign country to be a very daring act. It wasn’t easy for me... I didn’t understand pub culture. I didn’t understand that being openly ambitious was frowned upon. Once again I felt alone.
“But I grew to love English wit, Georgian architecture, sticky toffee pudding and the English countryside. There is nothing more beautiful than the English countryside.”
Madonna and Ritchie were divorced in 2008, and she is back in New York.
“I have started making films, probably the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done. I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Koran.
“As my friend Yaman always tells me, a good Muslim is a good Jew, and a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. I couldn’t agree more.”
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