Lana Del Rey hits back at claims she grew up rich: “If we had grown up with money, I would not have put myself in the position to be in the spotlight”

Lana Del Rey has hit back at claims that she grew up rich, saying she has “no idea what that would’ve felt like”.

Posting on Instagram yesterday (September 30), the singer-songwriter addressed a resurfaced past interview with fellow US musician Ron Pope.

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He has occasionally been identified as a former classmate of Del Rey’s at the Episcopal boarding school Kent School in Connecticut. The latter’s parents sent her there as a teenager to help her get sober from alcoholism.

Pope has now confirmed that the pair “didn’t go to school together”, but said they met “in 2005 or ’06” and subsequently “played a tiny show together” (via Stereogum).

He continued: “You’re right in that I WAS misinformed by someone before I met you… they told me you were a super rich kid from upstate, and then I carried those assumptions forward… so I was given shitty intel. Sorry about spreading that nonsense!”

Pope’s comments came after Del Rey hit back at claims that she came from a wealthy family, and said she was only able to attend boarding school after being granted a scholarship. She told her fans that such remarks had mainly come from “strange men”.

“I don’t remember a Ron Pope, although I might if I saw him,” the star explained. “The only people I still know from school are from home. And I wouldn’t say I grew up anywhere other than Lake Placid [New York].”

She continued: “Whoever he was I must’ve felt comfortable to tell him that I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and that I did live for a while in a trailer [in] Alabama not Arkansas – as well as in North Bergen, New Jersey.

“Many of the people I had to go to school with will never know what it was like to do what I had to do or go where I had to go to feel safe. One thing I can say is that if we had grown up with money – I firmly believe I would not have put myself in the position to be in the spotlight.

“My difficulties led me to one concept of how I could get out of the spot I was in. The only comfort I have in my deeply misunderstood trajectory is that it led me to Jeremy [Dufrene, husband] and allowed me to stay near to my siblings.”

Del Rey then explained that her “family struggled like every other family in Lake Placid”, adding: “I was on financial aid in Kent, and I was made fun of every day for that. That being said I try to remember the better times there, where my teachers were my main friends.”

The singer also referred to Jon Caramanica and Sasha Frere-Jones – both of whom discussed her backstory in articles for The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2012, respectively.

“People like [Pope] confound me. But unfortunately I feel that even acquaintances from back then were influenced by Jon Caramanica who pushed this gross narrative of me growing up in wealth even though he knew the real truth after digging deep into my family history,” she said.

“His influence on the New York papers and old friends was so vast, and his conviction to erase my entire life story was so ferocious that he single-handedly made it impossible to live in New York without being laughed at and made people who once understood me question the truth of my past. And he prided himself [on] that.”

Del Rey then told her followers: “Don’t let anyone write your story, no matter how much smarter they look or sound than you.”

She also replied to someone who said she must be tired of explaining herself. “I am tired,” she wrote. “But it’s very important not to let strange men keep telling me I had money. I have no idea what that would’ve felt like. It would have been easier if we did. That much I know for sure.

“I’ll never [understand] how living in one of the most hard working counties in the north east led to some bizarre national tale of wealth. I do think if my family had known where my path would lead me, they would not have applied for me to finish school in Connecticut since that seems to be the hot button twist in all of this.”

Additionally, Del Rey responded to someone who suggested she had lied about her upbringing, telling them: “It’s just not the case. There are no discrepancies.”

She continued: “My uncle worked in admissions. My parents found out I was able to go [to boarding school] on a scholarship. I found out I was going one month before. That experience didn’t go that well for me because of the widely spoken about issue of me being on financial aid that spread all over campus.

“I was one of the few people other than the locals and athletes who did not have that kind of money. I did my best to keep my head up. I was looked down upon by people who still hit me up […] It was hard. And now and then, I make these comments to remind people of that. It’s not often but the truth is important.”

Del Rey previously denied claims she grew up in wealth in 2023, saying that she was nicknamed “white trash from Lake Placid” in school.

Meanwhile, Del Rey recently hit back at a claim from a fan that she has undergone plastic surgery.

Over the summer, the singer confirmed that she had changed the title of her upcoming new album to ‘Stove’, and would be holding off from releasing the project until “the end of January” 2026.