MY RAPE SILENCE: MADGE

‘Not worth it’ to report ’78 attack, she says

Madonna has gone from “Express Yourself” to “Just Keep Your Big Mouth Shut.”

The pop star said reporting a rape was just “not worth it” during an interview Thursday in which she admitted she didn’t press charges against her own rapist because it was too much of a hassle.

“I was told that If I wanted to press charges that [there would be] a physical examination,” she said on SiriusXM’s “Howard Stern” show. “I’d have to go before the court. They’re going to ask you all these personal questions.

“You’ve already been violated. So do you then want to talk about it? No, it’s not worth it. It’s too humiliating.”

Stern and cohost Robin Quivers did not press Madonna on her choice to stay quiet after the 1978 attack. And the singer never said whether she regretted it.

She also didn’t qualify the comment by advising rape victims to come forward.

Madonna made it clear she blamed herself for the rape, which she has talked publicly about several times since the early 1980s.

She recalled her attacker was a stranger whom she asked for change to make a payphone call. The man offered to let her use a phone at his home and attacked her after she went with him.

“My stupid friendliness,” Madonna told Stern. “He’s like, ‘Well, I just live across the street. Do you want to make the phone call from my house?’ ”

“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really nice of you.’ That’s, ‘Hi, I’m from Michigan.’ So I trusted everybody.”

Victims advocates told The Post that a lot of women believe reporting a rape is not worth the legal ordeal. But they advised that victims should always seek justice.

“It’s sadly a common phenomenon that many people don’t report it until they feel emotionally ready,” said Linda Fairstein, a longtime chief sexcrimes prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s Office.

Fairstein took the post in 1976 and might have handled Madonna’s case had the music superstar gone forward.

“I’m always sorry to hear that someone did not report it because I’d like to think we could have helped her then,” she said.

Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University senior who has been carrying a mattress around campus as a statement against her own alleged rapist, said she appreciated Madonna telling her story.

“I don’t think I can make a judgment call how any survivor on earth should share their story,” she said. “But I’m happy she feels empowered and comfortable speaking about it now.”

I’d have to go before the court . . . You’ve already been violated. So do you then want to talk about it? No, it’s not worth it. It’s too humiliating. — Madonna (at left in 1978) on why she didn’t press charges against her rapist