Lady Gaga is being sued for £23 million by her ex-boyfriend, who claims he helped launch her career but was paid nothing after they split.

Rob Fusari says he co-wrote a host of tracks on the international smash debut album The Fame' and was even integral in choosing her stage name.

In the lawsuit filed in New York City, the songwriter and producer reveals how he met the then-unknown Stefani Germanotta in March 2006 and set about "radically reshaping" her music.

Fusari reportedly persuaded Gaga to drop rock riffs for dance beats and pursue a more "commercial" sound but their relationship then crumbled as she was on the brink of stardom.

"All business is personal. When those personal relationships evolve into romantic entanglements, any corresponding business relationship usually follows the same trajectory, so that when one crashes they all burn. That is what happened here," the lawsuit states.

Fusari, who has previously worked with Destiny's Child and Will Smith, alleges he is owed a slice of a deal she signed with Interscope Records in 2007, plus revenue from merchandising and royalties [Daily Mirror].

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