On a recent episode of the Apple TV+ series Dear…, Selena Gomez shared more details about how she processed her lupus diagnosis when she first received it in 2014. She also delved into some of her darker reactions to being body-shamed as her lupus medications caused weight fluctuations noted by people on social media.
Lupus causes the body’s immune system to attack its own tissues and organs, but Gomez said she initially didn’t feel any symptoms. That didn’t mean she couldn’t have a serious complication at any time.
“It was just my body fighting itself on the inside,” Gomez explained. “That was the most surreal part, because I never felt fatigue; I was young, I felt completely fine…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.”
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In 2017, Gomez’s close friend Francia Raisa donated her kidney, saving Gomez’s life; however, she will continue to need treatment indefinitely. Her medications for lupus changed her physical appearance and the singer often felt compelled to respond to body-shamers on social media with a brave face. But she says in private, it was a lot harder to take.
“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.”
Her posts celebrating her body and brushing off comments were a coping mechanism.
“I lied. I would go online and I would post a picture of myself and I would say, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not accepting what you’re saying,’” Gomez said. “All the while, being in the room posting and crying my eyes out because nobody deserves to hear those things.”
She continued, “Though 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… I just think it’s so unfair. I don’t think that anybody deserves to feel less than.”
She has discussed how the medications affect her preciously, saying in 2019 during an interview for the Giving Back Generation videocast, “I have lupus and deal with kidney issues and high blood pressure, so I deal with a lot of health issues, and for me that’s when I really started noticing more of the body image stuff.”
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Gomez added, “I really noticed when people started attacking me for that … that got to me big time. I think for me, that really messed me up for a bit.”
