Selena Gomez Talks Fame, Health, and Faith

Yesterday, Selena Gomez opened up about her kidney transplant with her best friend and donor, Francia Raisa, for the first time together. This morning, the pair continued to share their story on Today. In the second installment of their revealing interview, Gomez shared how she struggled to accept her fame, Raisa explained how her faith guided her through the donation and both opened up about Selena's hiatus last year.

At first, Gomez didn't want to accept the fact that she was suffering from Lupus.

"I'd get fevers, headaches, I'd get fatigue, but I always just kept going," she told Today's Savannah Guthrie. "I've kind of ignored it, to be honest, because it wasn't something that I really wanted to accept.

"I don't think I made the right decisions because I didn't accept it, and that's extremely selfish, and at the same time really just unnecessary. I'm not really proud of that." The 25-year-old added that she's "definitely the hardest person on myself."

During her hiatus last year, she and Raisa went six months without talking.

Gomez didn't only cancel her tour and log off social media when she took some time off in 2016, she also spent some time away from her closest friends, including Raisa. "I went away to a facility, I took some time off, I needed to get my mind right, be healthy, I removed myself from everyone in my life," Selena explained.

"We went six months without speaking," Raisa said.

"Just the fact that you have people in your life that can understand where you are and not judge you for it, not make you feel bad for it..." Gomez continued.

"It was a huge lesson of friendship for me, and trust, because it's easy to feel offended or want to be there. It's just, they need to go through their own thing," Raisa added.

Raisa and Gomez

For Selena, it wasn't about "getting caught up" with fame, but rather struggling to accept it.

"I don't think I ever accepted the position I had," she said. "It was me almost feeling guilty about fame. Because people could see anyone in my position and just say, 'Wow, they've got it all figured out, they've got everything, they get to live this cool life.'"

She added, "You're isolated, you're being looked at, you're being judged, and I'm always trying to be nice, I want to be great—that's genuinely who I am deep down, but it just seemed pointless."

The girls' strong faith helped them get through their kidney transplant together.

When asked where she got the courage to donate a kidney to her friend, Raisa said, "The only answer I have is God, honestly. If I didn't have my relationship with God, I don't think I would've been able to."

Selena also cited her faith. "What I believe is that it does happen for a reason. I think a huge part of my discernment and my honesty and my truth has been because I've had a relationship with God," she said.

Even with everything she's been through, Gomez is moving forward with a positive outlook.

"I don't want people to think that it's a sad thing that I went through this with Francia or with anything in my life, because at the end of the day, I think all of the stuff that I went through made me and defined everything that I am right now," she said. "I think it's a really beautiful thing and I have to remind myself that. It's not a negative experience."

Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now. 

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