Madonna on Wednesday detailed a brutal rape by a stranger that she survived when she was 19, explaining that the experience was so traumatic that she never considered reporting it.
“I didn’t know what my future was and I was super friendly. I was saying ‘Hi’ to everyone in the street like a dork,” the 56-year-old singer said on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show, referring to the time when she first moved from her Michigan hometown to pursue stardom in New York City.
“The first year I lived in New York was crazy,” Madonna said. “My stupid friendliness, just chatting with somebody. … I needed money because I was going to a dance class and the door was locked and I needed money for the telephone — the pay phone. He gave it to me and then he’s like, ‘Let me walk you to the phone.’ He was a very friendly guy … and then he’s like, ‘I just live right across the street. You can make a phone call from my house.’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really nice of you.’ I mean … I trusted everybody.
“Anyway, the rest is not worth talking about,” she said.
Asked if she ever reported the crime, the singer responded, “Well, I was told that if I wanted to press charges, you know, physical examination, I’d have to go before the court, they’re going to ask you all these personal questions. It’s like, so violating. You’ve already been violated. So then do you want to talk about it? Do you want to make it public? No, it’s just not worth it. It’s too humiliating.”
Mr. Stern’s co-host Robin Quivers asked Madonna what kept her from going back home after the attack.
“Well, have you ever been to Rochester, Michigan?” she asked. “I just didn’t want to go back. I can’t be around basic, provincial-thinking people.”
