In December, Tory Lanez was found guilty of shooting and physically assaulting fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in a July 2020 altercation. Though Megan addressed the case in interviews, testimony, and on her 2022 album Traumazine, she has not spoken on the situation since Lanez’s conviction until today, in a first-person account published by Elle billed as her first and last word on the subject.

The piece, as told to reporter Evette Dionne, begins like so:

I don’t want to call myself a victim. 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 goes on to describe Lanez’s attempts to mock her, discredit her, and leverage his social media following against her. “Imagine how it feels to be called a liar every day?” she says. “Especially from a person who was once part of your inner circle.” Later, there’s a reference to jokes, memes, and conspiracy theories at her expense — including, presumably, Drake’s Megan diss on Her Loss last year:

I could have let the adversity break me, but I persevered, even as people treated my trauma like a running joke. 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.

A theme throughout the article is many people’s refusal to believe Megan’s account of the events and the depression that resulted from that. She frames the guilty verdict as vindication for not just her but women in general:

It never crossed my mind that people wouldn’t believe me. Still, I knew the truth and the indisputable facts would prevail. I had worked way too hard to reach this point in my career to let taunts deter me. When the guilty verdict came on Dec. 23, 2022, it was more than just vindication for me, it was a victory for every woman who has ever been shamed, dismissed, and blamed for a violent crime committed against them.

The full piece is available at Elle.