Selena Gomez, 30, revealed how her 2014 lupus diagnosis has been affecting her life, in a new episode of the Apple TV+ series Dear, which features various people in the public eye sharing their story after receiving letters from people whose lives they touched. The singer reflected on the time her doctors gave her the scary news that she could have had a stroke on stage or worse even if she was feeling fit and healthy. She also mentioned how being on a different medication for the disease has caused her weight to fluctuate more, which has caused critics to body shame her.
“So hearing from a doctor, ‘You could have had a stroke onstage, you could have died’ — it was a lot. But I didn’t allow it to sink in; I didn’t want to process it,” Selena said in the episode, according to Daily Mail. The talented star had a life-saving kidney transplant in 2017 and went on the medication that caused her weight to go up and down. Although she put on a brave face most of the time, Selena admitted the judgment about her appearance caused her to “cry” her “eyes out.” She also reportedly admitted that she “lied” when she previously said the negativity didn’t affect her.
“My weight would constantly fluctuate because I would be on certain medications,” she explained. “And obviously, people just ran with it. It was like they couldn’t wait to find a thing to bring me down. I was being shamed for gaining weight because of my lupus.”
As far as why she “lied” when telling fans the criticism didn’t matter, she reportedly said she was trying to protect others who were body shamed. “I lied. I would go online and I would post a picture of myself and say [the negative comments] don’t matter, I’m not accepting what you’re saying — all the while being in the room posting that, crying my eyes out, because nobody deserves to hear those things,” she shared.
“I was posting these things saying it doesn’t bother me because I didn’t want it to bother other people who are experiencing the same thing — getting shamed for what they look like, who they are, who they love,” she added. “I just think it’s so unfair; I don’t think that anybody deserves to feel less than.”
In addition to talking about the effects of her lupus, Selena talked about Francia Raisa, the friend who donated a kidney to her for her kidney transplant. The grateful pal said she “will never ever, ever be more in debt to a person than Francia,” and added that “the idea of someone not even second-guessing to be a donor was unbelievably overwhelming.”