Selena Gomez's lupus meds make her gain weight. So what?

Selena Gomez’s lupus meds make her gain water weight — and she’s OK with that

A woman with dark hair and wearing a strapless formal gown smiles for cameras at an awards show

Feb. 17, 2023 9:20 AM PT

Taking medicine to manage her lupus makes Selena Gomez retain water, folks. Get over it.

The “Only Murders in the Building” star spoke out in a TikTok live session that was recently shared on Twitter, saying, “Not a model. Never gonna be.” The tweet said Gomez went live to discuss comments about her body.

Turns out when the singer-actor takes medications for her lupus — a diagnosis she received years ago, before she took a break in 2014 to deal with chemotherapy treatment for the disease — she gains water weight. She doesn’t stress about it, she says, and her fans shouldn’t stress either if they are dealing with something similar.

“I just want to encourage anyone out there who feels any sort of shame for exactly what they’re going through, and nobody knows the real story. I just want people to know that you’re beautiful and you’re wonderful and yeah, we have days where maybe we feel like s—, but I would much rather be healthy and take care of myself,” Gomez said in the video.

“My medications are important and I believe they help me,” she added.

Gomez famously had a kidney transplant because of lupus nephritis, where the disease causes a person’s kidneys to fail. Dealing with lupus is also the reason she went to “not for substance abuse” rehab for a couple of weeks in 2014.

“I wanted so badly to say, ‘You guys have no idea. I’m in chemotherapy. ... I locked myself away until I was confident and comfortable again,” the “Wizards of Waverly Place” alum told Billboard in 2015.

The 30-year-old also had a psychotic break in 2018, which led to her getting a behavioral-health diagnosis of bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression.

“I don’t wish it on anyone,” Gomez told The Times last month, “but the psychotic break — as much as it was painful, actually led me to discovering my diagnosis. I sought help. I believe in medication. It has completely changed my life. That hopefully was part of the message in talking about my story: ‘You should never stop figuring out who you are,’” she says. “I just hope that people [who are suffering] know they’re not alone.

“I think now I’m at the place where I wear it proudly, and I’m not ashamed, and I wanna continue to be honest with my journey, because I feel like I don’t have anything to hide.”

Staff writer Michael Ordoña contributed to this report.