Katy Perry Defends Her Livestream Therapy Session: ‘People Think It’s Weird’
Katy Perry is doing a lot of things in the interest of transparency these days, and in a recent chat with radio station Kiis FM, the singer dissected the reasons why she decided to be so forthcoming in her Witness Worldwide livestream earlier this month.
As fans will remember, during one part of her 72-hour livestream, Perry opened up to Dr. Siri Singh about dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts. “I feel ashamed that I would have those thoughts, feel that low and that depressed. Because, of course, Katy Perry’s so strong,” she said, referencing the lyrics from her 2013 Prism ballad, “By the Grace of God.”
The singer even broke down as she recounted how her hope to return to her pre-fame self inspired her to lop off all her hair and go blonde.
“I so badly wanted to be Kathryn Hudson that I didn’t want to look like Katy Perry anymore,” she said of trying to reconcile her private and public selves.
In her interview with Kiis FM, Perry explained that she has regularly been going to therapy over the last few years, and wanted to help shatter the stigma surrounding it by bringing that part of her life out into the open.
“I’ve been going to therapy for about five years and I think it has really helped my mental health incredibly,” she said. “And it’s a really wonderful thing to be able to talk to someone who doesn’t judge you, because I don’t think a lot of people have that. I encourage it. People think it’s weird or they think yoga is weird. No, there is nothing weird about taking care of your physical and mental health. That’s awesome.”
Perry added that she hopes her being vulnerable about her weak points will encourage fans to really examine their own and be unafraid to confront their issues.
“I have nothing to hide and I think that in a way, if I let down my guard and lift the veil on what people think that people in my position are or look like, maybe they can see that we are all just the same,” she said. “We are like anyone else. Maybe they can realize, ‘Oh, well, I kind of see myself in Katy Perry, and that means maybe I can dream as big as her, and I can do something with my life or chase my dreams.'”
During the interview, Perry also addressed some lighter fare: that viral photo of Orlando Bloom paddle boarding naked behind her.
“He asked me if I wanted to be [naked] and I was just like, it’s one of those things where I was like, ‘Oh, nah,'” Perry said, adding that she just “wasn’t in the mood.”