Musician Selena Gomez opened up about the effect that body-shaming had on her mental health.
Gomez, 27, appeared on an episode of the podcast “Giving Back Generation” where she talked about how the comments about her weight affected her while she was dealing with her lupus diagnosis, according to a report published Monday by Entertainment Tonight.
“I experienced [body-shaming] with my weight fluctuation for the first time,” Gomez shared. “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.”
Gomez admitted lupus doesn’t directly affect her weight, but all of her health issues combined do contribute to the fluctuation. (RELATED: Selena Gomez Drops Emotional Breakup Anthem)
“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,” she shared. “In reality, that’s just my truth. I fluctuate. It depends what’s happening in my life.”
The criticism “got to me big time” and “really messed me up for a bit,” Gomez said.
Gomez went on to say she’s “very happy” and has decided not to share everything about her life on social media.
“I don’t care to expose myself to everyone and hear what they have to say about it,” she said.