Madonna was a rape victim. Writing an essay for the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, the 55-year-old superstar has revealed her traumatic experience before she made it big and became a music icon.

She may rich and powerful now, but it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when she was still a nobody in New York, and was sexually taken against her will.

Madonna Louise Ciccone was a young struggling artist in Michigan when she decided to take her chance in New York. But it wasn’t a smooth move for the future “Material Girl.”

“New York wasn’t everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint,” she recounted her fateful experience.

“Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don’t know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.”

Madonna’s essay is about the “daring” life choices she had made. But while she had divulged several key information about herself during her rise to the top, it was as if she had mentioned her rape only as an aside.

She did not specify her age at the time of the attack, though she had relocated to New York City in 1978 when she around 20 years old. It’s understood that she chose not to report her rape to the police.

Madonna also explained in her essay why she had turned to Kabbalah, how she was condemned by the public for adopting two Malawian children, and her marriage failures.

“At 35, I was divorced and looking for love in all the wrong places. I decided that I needed to be more than a girl with gold teeth and gangster boyfriends. More than a sexual provocateur imploring girls not to go for second-best baby.

“I began to search for meaning and a real sense of purpose in life. I wanted to be a mother, but I realised that just because I was a freedom fighter didn’t mean I was qualified to raise a child. I decided I needed to have a spiritual life. That’s when I discovered Kabbalah.”

Madonna was married twice, first to actor Sean Penn, and the second to director Guy Ritchie. She has four children, two biological (Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon and Rocco Ritchie) and two adopted kids (David Banda and Mercy James).

“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,” Madonna wrote.

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