{{US pop icon Madonna was raped at knifepoint when she was a young struggling artist in New York, she revealed in an article in Harper\u2019s Bazaar.}}<\/p>\n
The 55 year old recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was \u201cscared shitless\u201d at times before she started making it as a singer and dancer.<\/p>\n
Describing her arrival in the Big Apple from the Midwest, where she grew up, she wrote: \u201cNew York wasn\u2019t everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms,\u201d and described \u201cpaying my rent by posing nude for art classes, staring at people staring at me naked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year, I was held up at gunpoint. 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\u2019t know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tall buildings and the massive scale of New York took my breath away. The sizzling hot sidewalks and the noise of the traffic and the electricity of the people rushing by me on the streets was a shock to my neurotransmitters,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cI felt like I had plugged into another universe. I felt like a warrior plunging my way through the crowds to survive. Blood pumping through my veins, I was poised for survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I was also scared shitless and freaked out by the smell of piss and vomit everywhere, especially in the entryway of my third floor walk up.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also talked about her time living in Britain married to director Guy Ritchie, saying there is \u201cnothing more beautiful than the English countryside,\u201d and revealed that she is now studying the Koran.<\/p>\n
The \u201cMaterial Girl\u201d singer, whose career has ranged from \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d to movie roles, the 1992 coffee table book \u201cSex\u201d and who last toured in 2012, wrote the cover story to accompany a fashion photoshoot of her in typically provocative gear, including a bondage style mask and a sword.<\/p>\n
Moving on a decade a time, she recalled being a pop star in her 20s, embracing Kabbalah in her 30s, before marrying Ritchie and moving to Britain by the age of 45.<\/p>\n
\u201cI consider moving to a foreign country to be a very daring act. It wasn\u2019t easy for me I didn\u2019t understand pub culture. I didn\u2019t understand that being openly ambitious was frowned upon. Once again I felt alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I stuck it out and I found my way, and I grew to love English wit, Georgian architecture, sticky toffee pudding, and the English countryside. There is nothing more beautiful than the English countryside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madonna and Ritchie were divorced in 2008, and a decade later she is back in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have started making films, which is probably the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done. I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Koran. I think it is important to study all the holy books.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs my friend Yaman always tells me, a good Muslim is a good Jew, and a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. I couldn\u2019t agree more.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{US pop icon Madonna was raped at knifepoint when she was a young struggling artist in New York, she revealed in an article in Harper\u2019s Bazaar.}} The 55 year old recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was \u201cscared shitless\u201d at times before she started making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000048651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-10790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000048651,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10790.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10790.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10790.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10790.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10790.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10790.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000048651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10790"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=10790"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=10790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}