Lady Gaga Says She ‘Had Psychosis’ 5 Years Ago: ‘Took Me Out of Life’

Lady Gaga is getting candid about her struggles with mental health.

Speaking on “The Interview” podcast from The New York Times on Saturday, March 8, the singer, 38, shared her experience of not being in a great place mentally.

“[Five years ago], I had psychosis. I was not deeply in touch with reality for a while,” she told the podcast. “It took me out of life in a big way, and after a lot of years of hard work I got myself back.”

Gaga (whose real name is Stefani Germanotta) admitted it was a difficult period of her life, but she shared how it led to a “special” moment between herself and her now-fiancé Michael Polanksy.

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“It was a hard time, and it was actually really special when I met my partner because when I met Michael, I was in a much better place, but I remember him saying to me, pretty early on, ‘I know you could be a lot happier than you are,’” Gaga said.

The “Blade of Grass” singer continued: “It was really hard for me to hear him say that because I didn’t want him to think that of me. I wanted him to think I was like this happy, totally together person.”

Gaga explained that her mental health experience was a topic she often found hard to broach.

“It’s something that I have found increasingly harder to talk about,” she said. “I hate feeling defined by it. It felt like something I felt ashamed of. But I don’t think that we should feel ashamed if we go through times like that. I mostly just wish to say, it can get better. It did for me, and I’m grateful for that.”

Gaga and Polansky first went public with their relationship in 2019 and confirmed their engagement in July 2024.

During the podcast, the singer raved about Polansky, gushing, “From the moment that I met Michael, he had the most warm and kind disposition of maybe anyone that I had met in my whole life.”

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Meanwhile, Polanksy spoke about the difficulty of dating someone in the public eye when he made rare comments on the couple’s relationship in ELLE’s February 2025 issue.

“Accepting that you won’t have the privacy others might have was the hardest part,” Polansky said of adjusting to his fiancée’s fame. “But Stefani’s comfort with it and patience with me has been amazing. Our relationship is probably a lot like everyone else’s. We just have to figure out how to do some of it in public. That makes it even more important for us to have strong friendships and close family relationships. We find normalcy where we can.”