Selena Gomez has broken her silence over the drama brewing online between her and her friend and kidney donor Francia Raisa. Raisa gained attention over the weekend when she commented “Interesting” and then deleted it on an E! shared on his Instagram with Gomez’s rolling stone quote about Taylor Swift being Gomez’s only “industrial” friend. Gomez didn’t specify which industry she was talking about, but many assumed it was just the music industry. Raisa is an actress.
Gomez is full rolling stone quote was, “I never fit in with a cool group of girls who were celebrities,” she said. “My only friend in the industry is really Taylor [Swift], so I remember feeling like I didn’t belong. I felt the presence of everyone around me living full lives. I had this position, and I was really happy, but… was I? Do these materialistic things make me happy? [I realized] I didn’t like who I was, because I didn’t know who I was.
Fans noticed that Raisa appeared to unfollow Gomez on Instagram too. Raisa is not currently following Gomez, but Gomez is following her.
Gomez commented on a TikTok about the drama around her without mentioning Raisa or her other friends in the comment or showing them all in her documentary my mind and me, saying, “Sorry, I didn’t mention everyone I know.” Fans took a screenshot of his comment:
The rolling stone article mentioned that Raisa was among the attendees at Gomez’s 30th birthday party. Gomez and Raisa also recently appeared together on Gomez’s TikTok:
Gomez and Raisa last had a public exchange about Raisa’s donation of her kidney to Gomez in March 2021, with Gomez expressing her gratitude to Raisa, “Thank you for blessing me. I am eternally grateful to you.
When Gomez and Raisa talked on the Today’s show in October 2017 about Raisa donating her kidney to Gomez, whose own kidneys were shutting down due to her lupus, Gomez explained how reluctant she was to ask Raisa to get tested to see if she was compatible.
“She lived with me during this interesting time when my kidneys were just done,” Gomez said. “That was it. I didn’t want to ask just one person in my life. The idea of asking someone to do it was really hard for me. She volunteered and did it – and let alone someone who wants to volunteer, it’s incredibly hard to find a match. The fact that she was compatible, I mean, it’s amazing. It’s not real.
Raisa herself said, “One day she [Gomez] came home and she was emotional. I hadn’t asked for anything. I knew she wasn’t feeling well. She couldn’t open a bottle of water one day. And she threw it away, and she started crying. And I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And that’s when she told me. And she said, ‘I don’t know what to do, the [donor wait] the list is 7 to 10 years long. And it just made me vomit. I was like, ‘Of course I’m going to get tested.'”
While Gomez objected because of Raisa’s busy career, Raisa said, “I called her assistant and told her to give me the information, I want to do it.”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at In the style and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running in Central Park, getting people to #ootd pictures of her, and exploring New York.