Not long after first sky-rocketing into the spotlight with her debut track 'Just Dance' in 2008, Lady Gaga found herself at the centre of heartbreaking speculation regarding her gender.
For years, vicious online trolls have fuelled rumours that the chart-topping star was actually born a man, and had been presenting herself as a woman in the public arena.
This also saw a gut-wrenching doctored photo of the singer begin trending on social media.
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Gaga initially refused to acknowledge the discussions - either to confirm or deny them - and as such, the rumours have ceaselessly continued to spread online.
In 2011, broadcast journalist Anderson Cooper attempted to grill the star over the claims, after which the 'Pokerface' bombshell hit back: "Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis?"
Gaga went on to insist at the time: "My fans don’t care and neither do I."
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She later went on to quip: "Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible?”
Last year, however, having seemingly grown tired of having her identify questioned by critics, the 35-year-old finally set the record straight with a powerful, liberating admission.
At the time, Gaga was chatting on the Netflix documentary What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates, during which she was asked why she'd refrained for addressing the controversial rumours for so long.
"The reason I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie," she told the billionaire businessman at the time.
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"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."\
Despite later going on to confirm that the speculation was unfounded, she refused to slam the false claims, using her platform to support anyone listening for whom the story was true.
"There was this imagery on the internet that had been doctored and they were like, 'You know there’s this rumour that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?'," the hit-maker continued.
"I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumour was not in the best interest of - I thought, of the well-being of other people."
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Gaga went on to add: "So in that case, I tried to be thought-provoking and disruptive in another way. I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point."
Discussing public identity in general, she added: "People, I think, assume that someone like me who performs, that my performance is what’s not real. To me, that’s the most real thing that you’ll see about me.
"That is so much more real than all of the rumours that are designed to orbit me to gain more clicks."
Rhianna Benson