Selena Gomez reveals that doctors told her that she could have "had a stroke on stage" after she received her lupus diagnosis.
Speaking on Apple TV+ series Dear, she opened up about the shock she had when she found out she was incredibly ill.
Selena didn't have any symptoms, she explained: "It was just my body fighting itself on the inside. That was the most surreal part, because I never felt fatigue; I was young, I felt completely fine.
"So hearing from a doctor, 'You could have had a stroke onstage, you could have died' — it was a lot. But I didn't allow it to sink in; I didn't want to process it."
Selena also said that she struggled with the vile trolls who criticised her when her weight fluctuated.
She explained: "My weight would constantly fluctuate because I would be on certain medications. And obviously, 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."
Selena spoke about her story on Dear... which features a range of people and celebrities who share their story as they are given letters from people whose lives they have touched.
In 2017 she had a life-saving kidney transplant after her friend Francia Raisa donated her kidney.
"I will never, ever, ever be more in debt to a person than Francia," said Selena.
"The idea of someone not even second-guessing to be a donor was unbelievably overwhelming," she added.
They both posed beside each other in hospital, holding hands in 2017 after the transplant.
Selena explained that Francia insisted on getting tested to see if she was able to donate her kidney.
"So within three days she went to go do it and she was a match, and it was one of those moments where I felt watched over," Selena recalled.
"I know I was so, so, so lucky. I understand that that doesn’t happen for a lot of people and I know the outcome of some of those situations and how serious they are. So I do not take it lightly that it’s happened to me that way."
To deal with the negativity, she admitted that she lied about how she dealt with the bodyshaming, mainly to protect others who were in the same position.
She said: "I lied. I would go online and I would post a picture of myself and say [the negative comments] don't matter, I'm not accepting what you're saying — all the while being in the room posting that, crying my eyes out, because nobody deserves to hear those things."
"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.
"I just think it's so unfair; I don't think that anybody deserves to feel less than," she added.
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