Lady Gaga has hit back at the haters who wrote nasty comments about her figure during her half-time show at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Despite the fact that her 12-minute set required incredible fitness-levels, she was shamed for wearing a crop-top and showing flesh on her stomach.

People said her “flab” was distracting, that she “needs to work on her abs” and that she shouldn’t have been allowed to “expose her belly”.

But now, Gaga has spoken out in response to her critics in an Instagram post.

Alongside a snap of her in the now famous crop-top, she said: “I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too. No matter who you are or what you do.”

It’s an inspirational message and will be applauded by women everywhere.

She continues, saying: “I could give you a million reasons why you don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That's the stuff of champions. thank you so much everyone for supporting me. I love you guys. Xoxo, gaga”

The post already has nearly a million likes on the photo-sharing social network and has received over 30,000 comments, largely of support.

“Such an inspiration,” said one person.

“We need more people who are beautiful inside and out. The people who are negative are just ignorant and miserable with their own life. You are an amazing soul,” added another.

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An Instagram post of this kind is not unusual for Gaga, who has always championed being who you are and not answering to anyone else.

And she’s not just talk either - in 2012, Gaga founded an organisation called the Born This Way foundation which aims to help young people feel comfortable and confident being themselves.

It’s a message that’s clearly hitting home too.