Cyndi Lauper knows her true colors, and she revealed she was “asked to leave” Catholic school twice after she refused to change herself for the school.
While in conversation with Gracie Abrams for their Rolling Stone Musicians on Musicians feature, Lauper, 72, opened up about how she was kicked out of her former Catholic school twice.
“Listen, I can’t even read a regular book without a piece of white paper underneath every line,” Lauper told Abrams, 26, as they talked about how difficult songwriting can be. “I don’t know if that’s because I got hit in the head with a lot of erasers. I have no idea.”
Lauper continued, “I went to Catholic school, but we had a lot of political differences, so I was asked to leave.”
She then clarified that she was kicked out “twice.” Lauper explained that it happened “once in third grade, and then again in fourth grade.”
After Abrams asked if she was expelled for “talking,” Lauper responded, “Oh, no, no, no. For talking back.”
At another point in her conversation with Abrams, Lauper admitted she was “still learning” as a songwriter after being in the music business for over 40 years.
“Sometimes you write something, you’re like, ‘Wow, look at what we did! Genius!’ Then the next day you listen and go, ‘What the heck were you thinking?’ It’s always like that, but ain’t that what we do?” the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” singer said.
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Lauper has always been open about her complicated childhood, she she previously spoke to People about the ups and downs of her upbringing during a 1984 interview.
“I spent years not accepting who I was,” she said at the time. “In high school I felt out of step. Everything became unreal for me. I felt there just wasn’t any room for me in this world. But you can’t escape yourself. ‘Why was I alive,’ I’d ask. I didn’t fit in, didn’t have nobody to do things with that I liked. I did them by myself.”
This story was originally reported by Parade on Oct 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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