Madonna is one of the fiercest, most true to herself singers we know - but the pop queen has revealed that life didn't start out that way. In fact, in an essay for Harper's Bazaar, Madonna has shockingly admitted that she was raped at knifepoint during her early days in New York - but she refused to let it destroy her dreams.
"I was held at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and I had my apartment broken into three times."
"I was held at gunpoint. [and] raped on the roof of a building."
Madge, just 20-years-old when she was attacked, chose not to report the it and "internalised" the terrifying sex attack. But, while she was "scared s***less and freaked out" by some aspects of the city, she remained "defiant" and hell-bent on surviving and on making it.
"It was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going… I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive. Blood pumping through my veins, I was poised for survival. I felt alive."
"I was poised for survival. I felt alive."
In the article for the magazine's Daring Issue, Madonna describes her early years as a "rebel" and nonconformist, who "did the opposite of what all the other girls were doing" and turned herself into a "man repeller". However, whenever life started to get her down, Madonna found strength from an unexpected source:
"Sometimes I would play the victim and cry in my shoe box of a bedroom with a window that faced a wall, watching the pigeons s**t on my windowsill. And I wondered if it was all worth it, but then I would pull myself together and look at a postcard of Frida Kahlo taped to my wall."
"The sight of her moustache consoled me. Because she was an artist who didn't care what people thought. I admired her. She was daring. People gave her a hard time. Life gave her a hard time. If she could do it, then so could I."
Her essay ends on an inspirational note, explaining that, while life has dealt her some hard blows, it has left her a better person because of it. And, in turn, a better mother:
"Ten years later, here I am, divorced and living in New York. I have been blessed with four amazing children." "I try to teach them to think outside the box. To be daring. To choose to do things because they are the right thing to do, not because everybody else is doing them."
How do you feel after reading Madonna's story - shocked, inspired, or something completely different? Let us know via our Comments Box below.