“What’s the nearest you’ve ever come to death?” I ask her. “Do you have any recurring illnesses?”
She goes oddly still for a moment, and then says, “I have heart palpitations and… things. But it’s OK. It’s just from fatigue and other things,” she shrugs, before saying, with great care, “I’m very connected to my aunt, Joanne, who died of lupus. It’s a very personal thing. I don’t want my fans to be worried about me.”

Her eyes are very wide. “Lupus. That’s genetic, isn’t it?” I ask.
“Yes.”

“And have you been tested?”
Again, the eyes are very wide and steady. “Yes.” Pause. “But I don’t want anyone to be worried.”

“When was the last time you called the emergency services?” I ask.
“The other day,” Gaga says, still talking very carefully. “In Tokyo. I was having trouble breathing. I had a little oxygen, then I went on stage. I was OK. But like I say, I don’t want anyone to worry.”

Lupus is a connective tissue disease, where the immune system attacks the body. It can be fatal – although, as medicine advances, fatalities are becoming rarer. What it more commonly does is cause heart palpitations, shortness of breath, joint pain and anaemia, before spasmodically but recurrently driving a truck through your energy levels, so that you are often too fatigued to accomplish even the simplest of tasks.

Suddenly, all the “Gaga cracking up” stories revolve 180 degrees, and turn into something completely different. After all, the woman before me seems about as far removed from someone on the verge of a fame-induced nervous breakdown as possible to imagine. She’s being warm, candid, smart, amusing and supremely confident in her talent. She’s basically like some hot, giggly pop-nerd.

Of course, she hasn’t said, outright, “I have lupus.” But the suggestion throws the whole previous year – being delayed on stage, canceling gigs, having to call the emergency services – into sharp relief.

Gaga is certainly very affected by her aunt’s demise: the date of her death, in 1976, is woven into her Rilke tattoo on her arm. When I ask her if she ever “dresses down”, she says the only thing remotely “dress down-y” she has is a pair of pink, cotton shorts, embroidered with flowers, that once belonged to her aunt.

“They’re nearly 40 years old,” she says. “But I wear them when I want her to protect me.”

And earlier in the article, some more things I found pertinent:

But still these rumours persist – of collapses and neuroses. You are, after all, a 24-year-old woman coping with enormous fame, and media pressure, on your own. You are currently the one, crucial, irreplaceable element of a 161-date world tour. How do you keep depressive, or panicked, thoughts at bay?

“Prescription medicine,” she says, cheerfully. “I can’t control my thoughts at all. I’m tortured. But I like that,” she laughs, cheerfully. “Lorca says it’s good to be tortured. The thoughts are unstoppable – but so is the music. It comes to me constantly.

Her fans are infamously, incredibly devoted – as she is to them. She calls them her “Little Monsters”. They draw pictures of her, get tattoos like hers, weep when she touches them. Her den-mother championing of “all the freaks” (fat girls, gay boys, lesbian girls, Goths, nerds, everyone who gets picked on at school), allied to her global pop juggernaut, makes her relationship with her fans intense. When you watch her with them, you see that culturally, what she’s doing is… providing a space for them. Giving them somewhere to meet. 

OK, back to me.  Oh my gosh, could it be that one of, if not THE biggest, performer right now could have lupus?  Lady Gaga, if this is true, I am so sorry that you have to join us in living with this horrific disease and at the same time, I am also excited because if it is true, you would be the best thing to happen to lupus awareness eve,r I believe.  As the journalist describes you above as a den-mother championing all the freaks and the devastating loss of your Aunt to lupus makes me so confident that if true, you will admit soon that you have lupus and then start championing for people in memory of your aunt and all the lupies out there desperately needing our disease to get more press, awareness, charitable donations and research and development dedicated to finding a cure for this disease.  Also as a proud feminist, knowing that 90% of people diagnosed with lupus are women, you can further champion women's rights.  No new drugs for lupus for over 50 YEARS and now there is finally one that is awaiting FDA approval but was shown to have no medical benefit after 2 years?  I have avoided posting on this topic because I am just not ready and feel I need to read the whole report before I comment on it but from the basic overviews I have read, Benlysta was shown to have no medical benefit after 2 years of use.  Yes, it is still progress for us because if a new medicine will give us a good 2 years most of us would jump at so it is progress but it is STILL NOT ENOUGH.  Lady Gaga, if you do have lupus, we need your voice and celebrity.

I am going to start researching the heck out of our Lady Lupus potentially, lol.  I love her songs but I want to listen to her whole albums and read past interviews, etc.  I will post more as soon as I know more.

My PALs, this could be huge for our disease.  Obviously, I have always known we need a celebrity spokesperson hence the start of my site and I always hope it is a major star so if she does have lupus, we have an unbelievable spokesperson who can have such a huge impact.  I wouldn't wish this disease on anyone in the world, but reality is lupus does not discriminate.  It affects the famous, the rich, the poor, everyone.  And it is long overdue for more celebrities with this disease to publicly acknowledge it and then discuss it openly as much as possible to raise awareness.  

I really believe from what the journalist wrote, that if she had outright asked our Lady if she has lupus, she would have answered her.  So, if for some miraculous reason you happen to stumble onto this blog, I am asking on behalf of the millions of people who have this disease and in memory of all of those who have died for this disease. Lady Gaga, do you have lupus?  

If you want to read the whole article, click here.  I am going to start researching and will update everyone soon on anything I can find.  And of course, if Lady Gaga does have lupus and admits it she will have a whole new fan base because we lupies and pals need to support each other.  I will absolutely buy every album she sells and go to her concert anytime she is in town and I can get tickets.  The same for Seal.  We as a lupus community need to band together, as the LFA promotes, to support celebrities that have the courage to "come out." More to come...stay tuned, lol

xoxo 

Lupus Celebrity