In a new essay for ELLE magazine, Megan Thee Stallion shared her thoughts and emotions publically for the first time after nearly four months following a jury finding Tory Lanez guilty of shooting her in July 2020.
Throughout the years following the assault, Megan Thee Stallion, born Megan Pete, dealt with being called a liar by Lanez and the public, dealt with the public making jokes at her expense and spreading misinformation by various blog outlets (especially during the trial).
“The truth is that I started falling into a depression,” Pete wrote. “ 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. 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.”
The shooting reportedly happened on July 12 after Pete, Lanez, her then-best friend and security guard attended a party at Kylie Jenner’s house.
“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,” she wrote. “I’m choosing to change the narrative because I’m more than just my trauma.”
Pete said she wished she “could have handled this situation privately,” but chose to speak after Lanez changed everything by making it public, leaving her feeling “drained.”
“It was nothing for y’all to start going and making up fake stories about,” Pete said on that IG Live. “I didn’t put my hands on nobody. I didn’t deserve to get shot.”
After a few more weeks passed, Pete took to social media again to speak her truth.
She did another IG Live and said that Lanez shot her for “no reason.”
Lanez was officially charged on Oct. 8, 2020, for the incident.
“Many thought I was inexplicably healed because I was still smiling through the pain, still posting on social media, still performing, still dancing, and still releasing music,” Pete wrote in her Elle essay.
Throughout 2020, social media played a key part in the harassment Pete faced from Lanez, her former best friend Kelsey Nicole and the public, which also includes Lanez addressing the situation on his “Daystar” album, all of which led Pete to eventually leave social media shortly before the trial eventually began.
“For years, my attacker laughed and joked about my trauma,” Pete wrote. “For years, my attacker peddled false narratives about what happened on the night of July 12, 2020. For years, my attacker tried to leverage social media to take away my power. Imagine how it feels to be called a liar every day? Especially from a person who was once part of your inner circle.”
Pete eventually returned to social media in March of this year and shared that the time away while dealing with the after-effects of the trial has been used for her healing and getting into a “happier place.
“The physical and mental scars from this entire ordeal will always sting, but I’m taking the appropriate steps to resume my life,” Pete shared.
Lanez was found guilty on Dec. 23, 20222 of three felony charges— assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded and unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
He faces up to 22 years in prison and deportation.
Lanez and his team have delayed sentencing for months while requesting a new trial.
Pete said this essay would be the first and last time she publicly addresses the ordeal.