Lady Gaga Drove Bachelor Nation’s Carly Waddell ‘Crazy’ in College

Lady Gaga’s former NYU classmate Carly Waddell admits she was “not a fan” of the Oscar-winning singer and actress when they were in school together. The Bachelor in Paradise star, 38, opened up on the Nov. 6 episode of the Trading Secrets podcast about her time studying alongside the superstar, born Stefani Germanotta, during the early 2000s at the exclusive Tisch School of the Arts.

“Stefani used to, during lunch, play on the piano,” Waddell recalled. “You would eat lunch in a dance studio and there was a piano, and she would sit at the piano every single day and just play and sing Wicked at the top of her lungs every day. And we were all just trying to eat lunch. It was break time, and we were all forced to listen to her.” The Bachelor Nation alum continued, “And yes, was she good? Of course! She was great, but I just wanted to eat my sandwich. And so, I used to just eat in the hallway because she was driving me crazy.”

Waddell also had something to say about the way Gaga, 37, would dress. “She would wear these really tight leotards,” the reality personality remembered, “and her boobs were just like coming out. She’s so ridiculous.” Gaga was also a head-turner when she performed her own material. “When she played at the NYU talent show, she was singing her own stuff and I was like, ‘You can’t argue, that girl is really good,’” Waddell recalled. “She was good at everything, but she was better at her own stuff. She was down at the piano, wailing her own tunes.”

Gaga would eventually drop out of the program to pursue her musical career, a choice Waddell applauds as someone who also did not finish her schooling at Tisch. “I don’t know what she did, but she’s a genius,” she explained. “I wasn’t a fan of her at that moment, but I was not my best at that moment either. We both dropped out of the program because we didn’t love the program, and I’m sure she was just as unhappy in it as I was or she would have stayed.” 

Waddell would go on to appear on Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor before finding love with ex-husband Evan Bass on Bachelor in Paradise. She’s now pursuing her career as a pop-country singer, telling podcast host Jason Tartick that while it’s “not the ideal time to put music out,” she thinks the “ideal time for me is now.”