Lady Gaga Explains Why She Responded to Super Bowl Body Shamers

Lady Gaga knew she needed to stop the body shaming after her Super Bowl performance — for herself, and for her fans.

The singer, 30, spoke out Tuesday after people criticized her for wearing a stomach-baring bodysuit during the halftime show, explaining on Instagram that she’s “proud of her body.”

On Thursday, Gaga talked to Ryan Seacrest about why she decided to take a stand.

“I couldn’t ignore that I saw my fans talking about that and that it upset them,” she said on Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio talk show. “I think other people maybe that are just like normal girls and guys who either have their own body image issues or just didn’t think it was a nice thing to say [were upset].”

“I just thought I would impart some of my positive attitude about it so that they felt like they had someone who was strong on their side.”

Gaga, who revealed in 2012 that she’s an eating disorder survivor after developing bulimia and anorexia at age 15, encouraged her fans to love their bodies in her Instagram post.

“I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I’m proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too,” Gaga wrote.

“No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don’t need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That’s the stuff of champions. thank you so much everyone for supporting me. I love you guys. Xoxo, gaga.”

This article originally appeared on People.com