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Madonna opens up about not reporting her violent rape: 'It's just too much humiliation'

The singer told radio DJ Howard Stern that the attack happened when she was on the way to a dance class

Helen Nianias
Friday 13 March 2015 05:56 EDT
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Madonna has told of how she was raped as a 19 year old, but declined to report the crime.

Talking to Howard Stern on Thursday about her early years, when she moved from Rochester, Michigan, to New York City, she said that she didn't report the attack, which was at knifepoint, because it wasn't worth it after the "humiliation".

"I was going to a dance class and the door was locked and I needed money for the payphone. [A man] gave it to me," she said. "He was a very friendly guy. I trusted everybody.

"I was raped. The first year I lived in New York was crazy."

She has previously spoken about the attack, saying she was "raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back".

Telling Stern about not reporting the crime, Madonna said: "You've already been violated. It's just not worth it. It's too much humiliation."

"First I was in shock, I didn't know a soul," she told Stern about moving to the big city at such a young age. "I was saying hi to people on the streets like a dork."

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