‘Body-shaming messed me up’

Singer Selena Gomez says being body-shamed after gaining weight really messed her up. In an episode of her friend Raquelle Stevens’ video podcast Giving Back Generation, Gomez opened up about how comments about her weight affected her mind and her health following her battle with lupus.

“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,” she added. 

Selena said while her lupus doesn’t directly affect her weight, the “combination” of all the different factors does.

Tough task

“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. In reality, that’s just my truth. I fluctuate. It depends what’s happening in my life,” she shared. Gomez said being mocked during that stressful period in her life “got to me big time”, and that it “really messed me up for a bit”.

She said she is “very happy with living my life” and doesn’t feel the need to share everything on social media because she doesn’t want 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,” Gomez said. —IANS