Selena Gomez does soul striptease in new documentary: Mental problems, suicidal thoughts and the desire to have children

Selena Gomez’s close friend Raquelle Stevens also remembers the dark times in the singer’s life. Worst of all: The years before Selena was diagnosed with bipolar. It wasn’t until the singer began hearing voices that it became clear something was wrong.

At some point, the voices became so loud that “they overshadowed reality and triggered a psychotic episode,” the singer explains in her documentary. The star had to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic. “If anyone had seen what I saw and what condition she was in in the mental institution, they wouldn’t have recognized her at all,” said Selena’s friend Raquelle Stevens.

Tragic: Her own mother Mandy only found out from the news that her daughter was in hospital. In the documentary, she recalls: “It’s a miracle that she got out of it, but there’s always this fear that it will happen again.”

The singer and actress was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus in 2014. Lupus can cause inflammation in the body. In the process, antibodies are produced which, instead of being directed against an infection, are directed against the body’s own cell and tissue structures. Symptoms include severe mood swings, epileptic seizures, joint pain, muscle pain, and kidney failure.

After Selena Gomez received a new kidney transplant in 2016 as a result of her illness, the symptoms subsided somewhat. But then in 2020 the relapse: “In the morning when I woke up, I immediately started crying because everything just hurt,” says Selena.

Due to her mental and physical illnesses, Selena has to take heavy medication. This is not without consequences…

Selena has been in the spotlight since she was seven years old. “I just wanted to act and sing. But then I never stopped.” According to her own statements, fame and money were never a motivation for Selena. On the contrary: more than once the artist has thought about throwing everything away:

Particularly sad: In an interview with “Rolling Stone” magazine, Selena recently revealed that she may never be able to have children due to the many medications she has to take. “It’s a very big issue in my life right now,” Selena admits. But she doesn’t let it get her down: “No matter how I’m supposed to get her, I’ll have children.”

For over eight years, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber have been one of the most iconic on-off couples in contemporary pop culture. 2018 then the final separation. Meanwhile Justin is with the Model Hailey Bieber married. Selena says today of that time, “I had to go through the worst heartbreak imaginable. But looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Selena processed her grief, among other things, in the song “Lose You To Love Me”. In it, Selena sings about how she had to lose her partner to find herself.

But Selena is also afraid that she will only be associated with her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber for the rest of her career: “I wonder when will I be good enough on my own? Just me on my own, without connecting to anyone must be brought.”

(This post was first published on 11/04/23.)