Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa have a long history. (Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Selena Gomez, who underwent a kidney transplant in 2017, is speaking out again about how much it meant when How I Met Your Father actress Francia Raisa donated her a kidney.
“I will never, ever, ever owe anyone more than Francia,” Gomez said on Friday’s episode of Dear…, an Apple TV+ series that features “groundbreaking icons” including activist Malala Yousafzai and the late Vogue editor André Leon Talley. “The idea of someone not even hesitating to be a donor was incredibly overwhelming.”
The Only Murders in the Building star recalled that one moment her “best friend” said she was getting tested to see if she was a potential match, and it seemed like the next they had — three days, actually later – given the green light for the medicine.
“It was one of those moments where I felt like I was being monitored,” said Gomez, who needed the transplant due to her battle with lupus. “I know I’ve been so, so, so lucky. I understand that that doesn’t happen to a lot of people, and I know the outcome of some of these situations and how serious they are, so I don’t take it lightly, this has happened to me.”
Gomez, who has also been open about her mental health, documented the date of her transplant with a tattoo that matches one of Raisa’s.
Although it’s unclear when the episode was filmed, it aired about four months after speculation that the two got on badly. Gomez said in a November 2022 interview with Rolling Stone that Taylor Swift was “really my only friend in the industry,” and Raisa reportedly commented on an Instagram post about the quote as “interesting,” to which Gomez later replied, “Me sorry I didn’t do that. I don’t mention every person I know.”
The women were rumored to have had disagreements years earlier over some of Gomez’s unhealthy choices and then become close again. (Raisa told Yahoo Life in July that she had to adjust her own diet after the surgery.)
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But there shouldn’t be any question as to where Gomez stands now.
“I think that’s how it had to happen for me to get where I am,” Gomez said of the transplant on the show. “I should go through it to do something for others.”