The singer opened up about having to deal with social media critics commenting on her weight while dealing with her health.
Selena Gomez is getting candid about how body-shaming affected her mind and her health following her battle with lupus.
The "Lose You to Love Me" singer recently sat down with her friend, Raquelle Stevens, for an episode of Stevens' video podcast, Giving Back Generation, and she opened up about how comments about her weight, posted to social media, really got to her when she was dealing with her health issues.
"I experienced [body-shaming] with my weight fluctuation for the first time," Gomez recalled. "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."
Gomez said that, while her lupus doesn't directly affect her weight, the "combination" of all the different factors of her health struggle does.
"It’s the medication I have to take for the rest of my life—it depends on even the month, to be honest. So for me, I really noticed when people started attacking me for that," she shared. "In reality, that’s just my truth. I fluctuate. It depends what’s happening in my life."
Gomez said that being mocked or criticized during that already stressful period in her life "got to me big time," and that it ultimately "really messed me up for a bit."
The singer went on to say that she's "very happy with living my life," and she doesn't feel the need to share everything on social media, because she doesn't want or need to live in the past or voluntarily live in the spotlight more than she already does.
"I don’t care to expose myself to everyone and hear what they have to say about it," Gomez explained.
However, despite the body-shaming and the pain, Gomez said that she still strives to live her life by the golden rule: "Treat other people the way you wish you were treated."
To this end, the songstress said that "the biggest lesson" she's had to teach herself is "how to learn, [when it comes to] the people that have hurt me the most, to forgive them. And to continue to understand and have compassion for people."
Check out Gomez's full sitdown with Stevens on TaTaTu.
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