Megan Thee Stallion Says She Will Never Speak About the Tory Lanez Shooting Again

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.