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Halsey Gets Candid About Struggles Before Fame: ‘I Was Having Sex as a Means of Survival’
Before Halsey (real name: Ashley Nicolette Frangipane) made it in the music industry, her life was pretty hard as she tried to make ends meet to survive, which included sleeping with random people.
When the 24-year-old first talked about having sex with men in exchange for a place to sleep in April, “it of course turns into this hyperbolized fantasy of ‘Halsey the Hooker,’” she said in a new interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “I didn’t have a pimp, no one was handing me money. But I was definitely dating dudes I wasn’t into because I could crash at their apartment. I was having sex as a means of survival. I’m lucky that that’s all it was for me; for other women I knew, it wasn’t just that. That’s the point I was trying to make.”
The “Without Me” crooner also got candid about her bipolar disorder and how she was sexually abused by a family friend when she was a child and was also sexually assaulted a couple of years ago. “Here’s what’s f—ked up to me,” she said. “A young man seeks success and power so that he can use it to control people, and a young woman seeks success and power so that she no longer has to worry about being controlled. It’s an illusion, a f—king lie. There is no amount of success or notoriety that makes you safe when you’re a woman. None.”
After Halsey confronted her recent sexual abuser, she felt relieved, but does not want to be remembered this way forever. “Then I’m not ‘Grammy-nominated pop star,’ then I’m ‘rape survivor,’” she said. “Uh-uh, no. Uh-uh, absolutely not. I have worked way too f—king hard to be quantified or categorized by something like that.”
The New Jersey native also touched upon how she was “committed twice” since she became Halsey. “It’s been my choice,” she confessed. “I’ve said to [my manager], ‘Hey, I’m not going to do anything bad right now, but I’m getting the point where I’m scared that I might, so I need to go figure this out.’ It’s still happening in my body. I just know when to get in front of it.”
The Grammy nominee previously revealed her struggles when she was a homeless teenager living on the streets of New York City. “When I was living in New York, I was a teenager. My friends were picking out decorations for their dorms, and I was debating on whether or not I should let a stranger inside of me, so I could pay for my next meal,” she said during a speech at the Ending Youth Homelessness: A Benefit for My Friend’s Place in Hollywood.
She continued, “It wasn’t because I did something bad. It wasn’t because something was wrong with me, and it wasn’t because my parents didn’t love — because they did very much. But a series of unfortunate circumstances led me to be in that position, and it can happen to absolutely anyone.”
We applaud your honesty, girl!
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