Just about anyone who watched the Academy Awards last February likely came away from their viewing experience believing Lady Gaga and her “A Star is Born” co-star Bradley Cooper were deeply and madly in love.
Except, as she recently told Oprah Winfrey in an interview for Elle magazine, they are not.
Though Gaga and Cooper's chemistry during their performance of the hit song "Shallow" became one of the most talked-about moments from this year's Oscars, she insists there is not a hint of real-life romance.
Winfrey asked her about the rumors that stemmed from their duet.
“Quite frankly, I think the press is very silly. I mean, we made a love story,” Gaga said. “For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars. We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on.”
Gaga went on to say that they worked on their performance for days.
“We mapped the whole thing out — it was orchestrated as a performance,” she explained. "In truth, when we talked about it, we went, 'Well, I guess we did a good job!'"
News about their respective romantic lives continued to fuel the rumors this year: Gaga split from then-fiancé Christian Carino in February, and Cooper reportedly called it quits in June with longtime girlfriend Irina Shayk, whom he shares a daughter with.
But Gaga has always maintained that their chemistry during that duet was just for show. Just after the Oscars, she spoke to Jimmy Kimmel about their performance.
“Yes, people saw love, and guess what?" she said. "That's what we wanted you to see."
The crowd certainly agreed, giving the pair a standing ovation. Gaga won the Oscar for best original song alongside her "Shallow" co-writers, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt.
In her interview with Winfrey, Gaga also talked about living with chronic pain, depression and how kindness has helped her heal. The music icon also spoke candidly about her past self-harm.
"I think it’s an important thing for people to know and hear: I was a cutter for a long time, and the only way that I was able to stop cutting and self-harming myself was to realize that what I was doing was trying to show people that I was in pain instead of telling them and asking for help."
The December issue of Elle hits newsstands Nov. 11.
