The Untold Truth Of Halsey

Halsey is an open book. There isn't much, if anything, the tatted up "Closer" and "Bad at Love" singer (real name: Ashley Nicolette Frangipane) won't talk about, almost too a fault. Since her debut album, Badlands, opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2015 and turned her into a go-to collaborator for Justin Bieber, The Chainsmokers and G-Eazy, Halsey has been forthcoming about the less glamorous aspects of her life, including her bipolar disorder, suicide attempt and sexual assault.

She told Star 2, "I think artists should talk about whatever is the truth for them and what they are passionate about. Every artist has his own story, but I'm proud to talk about my journey." That journey has led her to a pair of Grammy nominations and a No. 1 album with 2017's "Hopeless Fountain Kingdom."

While much of Halsey's life is already out there, thanks in large part to her own doing, there are still some things about her that aren't common knowledge. Here is the untold truth of Halsey.

Halsey doesn't believe in God. She said as much in an interview for friend and producer Benny Blanco's YouTube channel, where she claimed to believe in synchronicity (meaningful coincidences, for those who don't know) instead. All those references to angels, demons, praying and the afterlife in her songs and song titles? "It's just a hyperbolized version of how I feel in a romantic space," she told Beats 1, reiterating her lack of faith.

But there was a time when Halsey, who sang "I know I've only felt religion when I've lied with you" on her song "Colors," actually felt religion on the reg. She told Blanco "I was [religious] growing up. I was a youth pastor. I would like go and do youth group and stuff and Christian summer camps." It's unclear, however, when and why exactly Halsey went from believer to non-believer.

The embarrassing moment in high school that could have easily broken Halsey actually ended up invigorating her instead. She told Rolling Stone that someone broke into her locker during gym class and stole a topless photo of her intended for her boyfriend at the time. The picture then got passed around the school, as is unfortunately often the case, and "Teachers saw it; everyone saw it. And suddenly, I was not the weird girl, I was the slut. I could have recoiled and deflected my sexuality, but instead I was like, 'I'm going to own it now.'"

And own it she has. Halsey — who has gone on to pose topless in Playboy and Flaunt — opted for a buzz cut for a period of time because she didn't want her hair defining her or her sexuality. She has since grown her hair back out, but her point has been made.

Among the thousands who took to the streets during Occupy Wall Street in 2011 was Halsey, then a rebellious teen and member of the 99 percent. She attended rallies in New York's Union Square to protest against economic inequality. Of course, Halsey has since become rich and famous and now finds herself on the other side — in the one percent.

The irony of it all wasn't lost on her dad. She told the Zach Sang Show, "I came home and was talking about Bernie Sanders. I was talking about the one percent. And my dad was like 'How funny is it that you're part of a community now that is the very community you were protesting when you were a teenager? People who are in a higher income tax bracket.'"

While her bank account might look a little different — okay, much different — her views on economic inequality haven't changed. "I don't think there's any amount of money that I could ever make that would make me think it's okay to deprive people of human rights," she said.

Have you noticed that Halsey opts for scantily clad outfits when performing or making public appearances? Contrary to what some might think, it's not because she wants to show off her svelte figure. She told the Zach Sang Show it's actually because she wants to show off her ink. "Everyone always thinks there's some weird agenda in that but it's really just because I have a lot of tattoos and when my tattoos are covered up I just don't feel like myself. I wear clothing that shows off my tattoos." When she's not on the clock, Halsey said she's "wearing boys clothes all the time."

Rolling Stone revealed in a 2016 profile on Halsey that she had 17 tattoos, many of which were matching tattoos with friends and even fans. She has since added a queen of diamonds tattoo. And unlike her other tatts (like the Romeo and Juliet quote "These violent delights have violent ends" on her forearm) she doesn't have to worry about this one getting covered up... because it's on her face.

The apple didn't fall too far from the tree. Halsey got her love of tattoos from her mother, Nicole Frangipane, who dropped out of college when she learned she was pregnant with Halsey. "She's got a full sleeve," Halsey said of dear ol' Mom in an interview with iHeartRadio. "She has her tongue pierced. She's super, super cool, really beautiful, and always had tattoos when I was growing up. So I think looking up to her, I always saw it as an artistic thing."

It was Halsey's mom who took her to get her first tattoo, but it took some convincing from a then-15-year-old Halsey. "It's an anchor, and it has my mom's initials in it, and she has the same one." Her mom insisted she get the tattoo on her foot to deter her from getting more due to it being a sensitive spot on the body. Needless to say, Mom's plan didn't work.

Halsey isn't about to let someone else get the credit for her work. She worked way too hard to get to where she is at for that to happen. So if you think her collaboration on the Justin Bieber song "The Feeling" or The Chainsmokers song "Closer" made her career, Halsey has a bone to pick with you.

She told the Zach Sang Show, "I'm really glad I did the Bieber record, but I sold out Madison Square Garden before I did it. And I'm really glad I did "Closer," but Badlands went platinum before I did it." She's not wrong. Halsey was on her way before then, as proven by her record and ticket sales. "So I worked really hard on my own," she added. "To have that handed to someone else, I won't tolerate that."

One of the reasons it's such a touchy subject for Halsey is because she believes it's misogynistic. "It is such a male-dominated industry that everyone seems to believe there has to be a man behind the woman," she told Flaunt, "that women can't do anything without some secret help." Clearly she's proven that theory wrong.

Saying Halsey is extremely honest during interviews would be an understatement. She isn't one to mince words when talking about other artists (ask Iggy Azalea) and has shared details about her life that some artists would try to hide. There is, however, one experience that she wishes she had kept to herself: Her miscarriage. She opened up about it in an interview in Rolling Stone, revealing that she had a miscarriage in her hotel room right before a show. And then came the backlash. Awful, mean, repulsive backlash.

Halsey told Paper afterward that "a lot of people were like, 'Oh, you're lying. You had an abortion.' I did a show in Toronto and a couple people came to the concert and held up a bunch of bloody baby dolls in the crowd." It gets worse. She added, "my WhatsApp got hacked and people started sending me messages with pictures of fetus parts..." and that people will tweet her to let her know "how many days my baby's been dead." That's horrifying. You can't blame her for wanting that one back.

Before she settled on a Romeo and Juliet-like theme for Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, which opens with Halsey reading the opening prologue to Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, she had a completely different concept in mind for her sophomore album. According to Vulture, there was "a young girl dying of cancer who submits to an experimental treatment for which she is cryogenically frozen, but she wakes up too soon and wreaks havoc."

Sound familiar? That's because it's similar to the plot of Netflix's massively popular sci-fi drama Stranger Things, where a young girl, Eleven, undergoes a series of traumatizing experiments and develops super powers. Halsey felt the ideas were too similar and scrapped plan A. But she does, however, appear to be a Stranger Things fan. She once dressed up as Eleven for Halloween. And, as you can see for yourself, the costume was pretty spot on.

It's no coincidence that Halsey has dated various people in the music industry. Besides the fact that these are the people she's surrounded by on a daily basis, she feels musicians get her in a way that others might not. Asked during an interview with the Zach Sang Show if she sees herself eventually settling down with an artist, Halsey responded, "I think I would have to because no one else would be able to tolerate my craziness." Sorry to all the accountants and teachers who felt like they had a chance with Halsey.

If you look at who she has been linked to over the years, it seems to back up her position on the subject. There's Machine Gun Kelly, The 1975 frontman Matt Healy, Norwegian producer Lido and, most famously, G-Eazy, among others. Considering none of those relationships panned out, you'd think Halsey would maybe reconsider her stance.

It appears that Halsey hasn't reached her squad goals. She has repeatedly claimed that she doesn't have many friends, which is surprising because, c'mon, who wouldn't want to be friends with Halsey? But maybe that's not the problem. It's tough to say, as Halsey's reasons for her small circle vary from interview to interview.

Her Vulture interview claimed she has tried making friends in LA and wants people to talk to, but "everybody ignores her." We find that hard to believe. She previously told Beats 1 that she's too busy for friends: "A lot of these kids think I have some life. And I don't. I don't. I don't have friends. I don't go out. I don't do anything. Every single day I wake up and this is all I do from morning to night."

And then in a separate Beats 1 interview she admitted she's not so good at relationships. "I have human relationships like songs, so I can have a human relationship for like 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Like I'm really bad at long term relationships."