'It's haunted me all my life': Nicki Minaj details heartbreaking decision to have an abortion after falling pregnant as a teenager

To the world she's a fiery rap superstar at the top of her game. But Nicki Minaj has revealed a secret heartache that has hung over her like a shadow for years.

The 32-year-old has spoken openly for the first time about having an abortion when she was a teenager.

Detailing the horror of making the decision to terminate a pregnancy at such a young age, she said: 'I thought I was going to die. I was a teenager. It was the hardest thing I’d ever gone through.

'[It's] haunted me all my life. It’d be contradictory if I said I wasn’t pro-choice. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have anything to offer a child.'

The star first hinted at the subject in her 2008 track Autobiography, in which she referred to herself as 'mommy'.

The topic returned to the spotlight earlier this month when she showed off her vulnerable side in new track All Things Go.

The rapper, pictured above in an acting lesson while at school, was dating an older man while studying at the LaGuardia High School in New York in the 1990s

Referring to a child who would have been 16, the same age as her beloved younger brother Micaiah, she raps: 'My child with Aaron would have been 16, any minute/ So in some ways I feel like Caiah is the both of them/ It’s like he’s Caiah’s little angel, looking over him.'

Although it is not known who 'Aaron' is, the man who she fell pregnant with was believed to have been an older man from Queens, New York who she met while studying at the revered LaGuardia performing arts school.

It's a shockingly honest revelation from the tough hip-hop hitmaker, who prefers to keep her private life out of the public domain.

However, she insists that she wants her fans to know more about her past through the material on her recently-released third record, The Pinkprint.

In her interview with Rolling Stone, she adds: 'One of my goals was to give people a glimpse into my personal life, because it’s something I’ve kept very private.'

Nicki - real name Onika Tanya Maraj - also defends her racy stage persona to the publication, insisting she is empowering women.

The star quipped: 'I'm a grown-ass f***ing woman! I stand for girls wanting to be sexy and dance, but also having a strong sense of themselves.

'If you got a big ol’ butt? Shake it! Who cares? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be graduating from college.' ...DailyMail