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Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney take the Polar Plunge

Written by . Published: March 07 2016

Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney braved chilly temperatures on Sunday (06Mar16) to take part in Chicago's annual Polar Plunge.


The pop superstar and her actor fiance joined thousands of other daring souls to jump into Lake Michigan to raise money for the Special Olympics, marking their second consecutive year taking part in the frigid feat.


A number of Taylor's co-stars on TV drama Chicago Fire, and sister shows Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med, also joined in the charity event, including former Sex and the City star David Eigenberg, while TV weatherman Al Roker and newswoman Tamron Hall took the plunge too.


Sharing a few words of advice with first-timer Al, David said, "Use your best wrestling moves. We wrestle in here, it's a about a three-minute wrestle," while Gaga assured the weatherman he would quickly get over the shock of the cold water.


"You gotta feel pain to feel empathy," she told 61-year-old Al, according to the Chicago Tribune.


The Born This Way singer, who wore a black T-shirt and matching pants for the event, along with a patriotic stars and stripes cap, later shared photos of the charity effort on social media.


"That's was cold (sic)," she captioned one image on Snapchat, while another snap, uploaded to Twitter.com, featured the blonde beauty hugging a polar bear mascot.


"You can't have empathy without pain," she wrote. "Get FREEZING cold so they can feel your warmth. #SpecialOlympics #PolarPlunge".


Participants this year (16) didn't feel the chill as much as in past attempts as the air temperature was a little warmer, at around 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius).


Last year (15), Gaga helped organizers raise a record-breaking $1.1 million , and Casey Hogan, president of Special Olympics Chicago, thanked the pop superstar for helping to boost funds.


"She's pure heart," Casey told the Associated Press at the time. "She came out for the cause - low-key, no press. It doesn't get any better than that."


Actor Vince Vaughn also joined in the fun last year (15), while in 2014, comedian Jimmy Fallon jumped in, fully clothed in a suit and tie.

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