Lady Gaga Gets Candid About Smoking Pot As Self-Medication

Lady Gaga’s battle with fibromyalgia kicked off in 2013 after she broke her hip, leading to canceled tour dates and surgery. But the "A Star Is Born" star revealed that the Chromatica tour and her now-fiancé, Michael Polansky, played a major role in her journey to managing her chronic pain.

Over a decade later, Lady Gaga is opening up about how she’s finally “pain-free” after years of battling fibromyalgia and adds that she’s now stopped self-medicating with marijuana.

The "Joker: Folie à Deux" star shared in her October cover story for Vogue that touring in 2022 for the Chromatica Ball tour “was the first time I’ve performed not in pain in…I don’t even remember.”

Lady Gaga fractured her hip during her "Born This Way Ball" tour, sparking years of fibromyalgia pain—a chronic disorder marked by widespread muscle pain. Her struggle with the condition was documented in her 2017 documentary, "Gaga: Five Foot Two."

The “Poker Face” singer opened up about her difficulty managing the pain from her disorder, revealing that she relied on marijuana for relief. That same year, she was forced to cancel a performance in Brazil after being hospitalized for “severe pain.”

“Michael and I did that tour together,” she says. “I did it pain-free! I haven’t smoked pot in years. I’ve, like, changed.” She pauses with a chuckle before adding, “A lot. I feel like this new album, in a lot of ways, is about that time but from a place of happiness instead of misery. And now, Michael and I are really excited to organize our lives—and our marriage—around our creative output as a couple.”

Michael Polansky and Lady Gaga’s connection began in 2019, thanks to Gaga’s mom, Cynthia Germanotta, who co-founded the Born This Way Foundation with her daughter in 2012 to promote youth mental health.

“My mom met him and she said to me, ‘I think I just met your husband,’ and I said, ‘I’m not ready to meet my husband!’ I could never have imagined that my mom…found the most perfect person for me.” she told Vogue.

Polansky, who graduated from Harvard during the Zuckerberg era, is well-connected with Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder and former Facebook president.

While the COVID-19 pandemic affected so many, it allowed Lady Gaga to spend quality time with Polansky.

“I’d been so focused on my career since I was a teenager. And the gift of that time was that I got to completely focus on my relationship," she said. "I met this totally supportive, loving human being who wanted to get to know me—outside of Lady Gaga.”

“We had this amazing chapter of a weird kind of normalcy,” Polansky added, “that’s essential for any relationship to develop in a real way—taking walks, making coffee, hanging out with the dogs, reading books together….”

Lady Gaga is gearing up to take on one of pop culture’s most legendary characters, Harley Quinn, in the highly anticipated "Joker" sequel. Joining Joaquin Phoenix, who’s back as Arthur Fleck, Gaga is trading her powerhouse vocals for the wild, unpredictable world of the infamous anti-hero.

Famed for her dramatic flair and bold performances, the Grammy winner promises to deliver a fresh take on Harley Quinn.

“Harley Quinn is a character people know from the ether of pop culture," Lady Gaga said. "I had a different experience creating her, namely my experience with mania and chaos inside—for me, it creates a quietness."

The "Born This Way" singer continued, "Sometimes women are labeled as these overly emotional creatures and when we are overwhelmed we are erratic or unhinged. But I wonder if when things become so broken from reality, when we get pushed too far in life, what if it makes you…quiet?”

She takes a moment, getting emotional. "I would say that I worked from a sense-memory perspective: What does it feel like to walk through the world and be…braced, in an intense way. And what happens when you cover up all of the complexities beneath the surface?”

"Joker: Folie à Deux" will be released in theaters on October 4.