Katy Perry is a pop icon these days — but growing up the child of born-again evangelical-ministers, the "E.T." singer had zero access to much of the "real" secular world.
"I didn't have a childhood," Perry, 26, tells the new Vanity Fair, noting that her mom forbade her from reading any books except the Bible — and that words like "deviled eggs" or "Dirt Devil" were verboten.
The platinum-selling star wasn't allowed to listen to pop music, and relied on friends to sneak her CDs.
When Perry became sexually active, she had to secretly visit a Planned Parenthood clinic to get educated about birth control. "It was considered like the abortion clinic…I was always scared I was going to get bombed when I was there," she admits to the magazine. "I didn't know it was more than that, that it was for women and their needs."
But she and her parents have resolved their religious and political differences, she says. "I think sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up,…Mine grew up with me. We coexist. I don't try to change them anymore, and I don't think they try to change me. We agree to disagree."
Plus, like any parents, her huge stardom is thrilling to them. "They're excited about [my success]. They're happy that things are going well for their three children and that they're not on drugs. Or in prison."
She and her husband Russell Brand also don't see exactly eye to eye when it comes to spiritual practices. "Russell is into Hinduism, and I'm not [really] involved in it. He meditates in the morning and the evening; I'm starting to do it more because it really centers me. [But] I just let him be him, and he let's me be me," she says.
"[He] never lied to me once. I trust him; there's just a level of trust that we've built up."
