In a soul-baring cover story interview with Elle, Megan Thee Stallion is officially breaking her silence on the Tory Lanez shooting incident and trial for the first — and “final” — time since Lanez's guilty verdict.
“My purpose is for these words to serve as the final time that I’ll address anything regarding this case in the press,” said Megan, as told to culture reporter and author Evette Dionne. “I understand the public intrigue, but for the sake of my mental health, I don’t plan to keep reliving the most traumatic experience of my life over and over again. I’m choosing to change the narrative because I’m more than just my trauma.”
In July 2020, Megan Thee Stallion was shot in the feet by rapper Tory Lanez.
“I don’t want to call myself a victim,” Megan said. “As I reflect on the past three years, I view myself as a survivor, because I have truly survived the unimaginable. Not only did I survive being shot by someone I trusted and considered a close friend, but I overcame the public humiliation of having my name and reputation dragged through the mud by that individual for the entire world to see.”
Megan acknowledges that the incident was one she wishes she could have handled “privately,” but the social media narrative around the events of that night was quickly tailored to Lanez's favor, in efforts to deny his culpability.
Related: Misogyny, Misinformation, and the Men Trying to Provoke Megan Thee Stallion Into Silence
“It never crossed my mind that people wouldn't believe me,” said Megan, who endured relentless bullying, severe criticism and doubt, and misogynistic online vitriol from both the public and her music industry peers. (Most recently, Drake received severe backlash for his verse on November 2022's “Circo Loco," in which many fans believed he implied that Megan was lying about being shot by Lanez.)
“Imagine how it feels to be called a liar every day?… I could have let the adversity break me, but I persevered, even as people treated my trauma like a running joke,” said Megan. “First, there were conspiracy theories that I was never shot. Then came the false narratives that my former best friend shot me. Even some of my peers in the music industry piled on with memes, jokes, and sneak disses, and completely ignored the fact that I could have lost my life. Instead of condemning any form of violence against a woman, these individuals tried to justify my attacker’s actions.”
On December 23, 2022, Lanez was found guilty by a Los Angeles jury of shooting Megan in both of her feet — specifically, guilty of assault with a semiautomatic firearm; possession of a concealed, unregistered firearm; and negligent discharge of a firearm. As noted by Rolling Stone, Megan's new comments on the verdict arrive only a few weeks after Lanez filed a motion to request a new trial in the case. A judge has yet to rule one the motion, which Elle reports was a move prosecutors opposed.
Megan called the guilty verdict “vindication," but not an antidote to her trauma. In the aftermath of the shooting, Megan told Elle that she “started falling into a depression.” “I didn’t feel like making music. I was in such a low place that I didn’t even know what I wanted to rap about,” she wrote. “I wondered if people even cared anymore. There would be times that I’d literally be backstage or in my hotel, crying my eyes out, and then I’d have to pull Megan Pete together and be Megan Thee Stallion.”
Healing, according to Megan, has looked like intentionally stepping away from social media, spending time with her dogs and her manager, daily journaling, and “doing a lot of praying.” While she's fortunately doing much better, she still experiences anxiety and says discussing the experience of being shot “still makes [her] emotional.” This is why Megan is setting a boundary with the public — moving forward, she refuses to ever discuss the shooting or the trial.
Elsewhere in her moving essay, she thanked the Hotties, her loyal fanbase, shouting out the ones who “showed up to court” to support her. She also thanked the women who have supported her in any way they were able to throughout this ordeal.
“For anyone who has survived violence, please know your feelings are valid,” said Megan. “You matter. You are not at fault. You are important. You are loved. You are not defined by your trauma. You can continue to write beautiful, new chapters to your life story. Just because you are in a bad situation doesn’t mean you are a bad person. Our value doesn’t come from the opinions of other people. As long as you stand your ground and live in your truth, nobody can take your power.”
“We can’t control what others think, especially when the lies are juicier than the truth,” she continued. “But as a society, we must create safer environments for women to come forward about violent behavior without fear of retaliation. We must provide stronger resources for women to recover from these tragedies physically and emotionally, without fear of judgment. We must do more than say her name. We must protect all women who have survived the unimaginable.”
