Selena Gomez Said She "Lied" About Being Unaffected by Body-Shamers After Her Lupus Diagnosis

Selena Gomez is opening up about being attacked online for her physical appearance following her lupus diagnosis. 

On the newest episode of the Apple TV+ series Dear..., the singer-slash-actress got candid about how body-shaming comments actually affected her self-esteem, despite acting like the trolls didn't bother her at the time. “I lied," Selena said of how she pretended not to care about what people were saying about her weight. "I would go online and post a picture of myself and I would say, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not accepting what you’re saying,’ all the while being in the room posting that crying my eyes out, ’cause nobody deserves to hear those things."

Gomez, who revealed that her lupus medication is what caused her weight to fluctuate, added, “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.”

“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," she went on to further explain. "I just think it’s so unfair. I don’t think that anybody deserves to feel less than.”

Elsewhere during the episode, Selena also discussed how she didn't understand the severity of her illness when she was first diagnosed in 2014. "I knew I had an autoimmune disease, it was just my body fighting itself on the inside,” she said. “And that was the most surreal part because I had never felt fatigue, I was young, I felt completely fine." She continued, "So hearing from a doctor that, ‘Oh, you could’ve had a stroke onstage, you could’ve died,’ it was a lot.”