In 2008, Lady Gaga – real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – shot to international stardom thanks to her hit single ‘Just Dance’.

Lady Gaga has finally addressed a long-standing rumor. Credit: JB Lacroix / Getty

She quickly proved she was far from a one-hit-wonder with follow-up chart-toppers like ‘Poker Face’, ‘Telephone’, and ‘Bad Romance’.

Sadly, the more success the singer had, the more exposure came with it – and this sadly led to a vicious rumor circulating on social media and in tabloids about the star, especially after a doctored image was widely shared online.

The distasteful rumor was that Lady Gaga was born male, with some people claiming that the singer had a penis.

In fact, back in 2011, Gaga sat down for a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, in which he asked: “There was a rumor that you had a male appendage, that you were a hermaphrodite … A lot of artists would have put out some sort of statement saying ‘This is absolutely not true’, but you have fun with it.”

Gaga – skirting a definitive yes or no answer – fired back: “Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible? Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don’t care and neither do I.”

Now, after more than a decade of further cementing her status as one of the greatest living musicians, Gaga has spoken out about the rumor.

Speaking on Bill Gates’ new Netflix series – What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates – the 38-year-old singer and actress revealed why she never outright denied the rumor.

The singer – pictured here in 2009 – became targeted in her early career. Credit: Charles Eshelman / Getty

“The reason I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie,” she said. “But I thought about, what about a kid that’s being accused of that, that would think that a public figure like me would feel shame.”

Gaga continued: “There was this imagery on the internet that had been doctored and they were like, ‘You know there’s this rumor that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?'”

Speaking about why she would often tackle questions – like Cooper’s – with more thought-provoking responses, she explained: “I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of — I thought of the wellbeing of other people.