"He said, ‘You know, we can get an abortion’.
She says: “When I told Richie that I was pregnant, I didn’t tell him about the medicine, just to see his reaction. She was suffering from chronic stomach pain and was told the medicine she could take for it might harm her baby. When she was 23, Cyndi, who had been told she could never have a baby because of a cervical complication, got pregnant by a musician boyfriend called Richie. And I said to her, ‘Why did you do this to me?’ and she told me it was because she loved the guy and wanted to make him happy.” I was nauseated and in disbelief that it wasn’t just men.The girlfriend went into the bathroom, and I followed her, still not dressed. I tried so hard to break loose and I couldn’t because I was being held down by his girlfriend and her sister. I ran away from them but they caught me and pulled my pants off. She says: “He grabbed it then two other people grabbed me. One was playing around with a sex toy when the mood turned sinister. Then I cut up an onion, put olive oil in a pan with some basil, a little garlic, and a bay leaf, and sautéed the squirrel.”Ĭyndi, 59, tried to make it as a singer in a group but ended up suffering a terrifying sex assault at the hands of her bandmates. But I took whatever was there and chopped it up. She says: “I cut its head off and peeled back the skin, and I thought, ‘Hmm, there’s not a lot of meat’. She was once so poor she was forced to eat a squirrel her boyfriend had shot. I’d stay in there because it was enclosed, and slowly I would begin to feel better.” “I’d empty out the cupboard under the sink and crawl under there. When I really couldn’t deal with anything, I used to get the shakes, just complete anxiety attacks. “A lot of times I couldn’t take it anymore, so I just lay in bed all the time. She says: “I had no television, no stereo, nothing. She left home at 17 after catching her stepfather spying on her in the bath and ended up living alone in an apartment in New York, so poor she had to beg or busk for food. When she started therapy she started to recover, pouring her heart out about the violence, misery and squalor she had endured in her earlier years.Īfter her dad left home when she was 10, her mum married a man who turned out to be a violent bully who threatened to rape Cyndi and her sister Elen. She says: “The only thing that always prevented me from suicide is that I never wanted a headline to read, ‘Girl who wanted to have fun just didn’t’.” I thought the sadness would never go away.”īut ironically, fame saved her life. "I would go to the studio, and then sit in my dark room and drink vodka. When I was living in that hotel I was two steps off of that balcony. It was always like that - it was never enough. I disappointed the record company because I didn’t come home with an armful of awards like they expected. She says: “I had come so far but felt like I had failed. The Eighties pop icon, whose distinctive style inspired Madonna and Lady Gaga, has sold more than 50 million records and had 40 hit singles.īut in her shockingly honest new autobiography she tells for the first time how she escaped a violent upbringing and a life begging on the street to make it as a chart star.Īnd in 1989, when she was living alone in a New York hotel after her hits started to dry up, the singer – now married to actor David Thornton – hit rock bottom after splitting from her long-term partner and manager David Wolff. but Cyndi Lauper has revealed a dark, violent past that pushed her to the brink of suicide. She’ll always be remembered for singing Girls Just Want To Have Fun.