Selena Gomez has attacked the media and revealed she has lupus in one strongly worded interview with Billboard.
The singer hit back at the press, after spending the last few months being accused of going in and out of rehab, not to mention body shamed for putting on weight.
Gomez made the point that tabloids run with rumour as fact, and a story can spread alarmingly quickly, hurting those involved.
She spoke to Billboard and said:
I was diagnosed with lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy.
That’s what my break was really about. I could’ve had a stroke.” At the time she announced her music hiatus, Gomez said her break was about making time for acting.
I wanted so badly to say, ‘You guys have no idea. I’m in chemotherapy. You’re assholes,'” she told Billboard. “I locked myself away until I was confident and comfortable again.
I’m so fucking nice to everybody, and everyone is so vile to me.
I’ve been working since I was 7. I’ve been a UNICEF ambassador since I was 17. It’s so disappointing that I’ve become a tabloid story. The hate motivated me.
Sufferers of the disease are able to live a full life with treatment, but hallmarks of the disease include the immune system struggling to distinguish between foreign bacteria and healthy body tissue, attacking healthy tissue, causing inflammation and pain – along with damaging organs.
It is hard to open a magazine or look on the internet these days without seeing a celebrity accused of something – or mocked for being too fat or too thin, and Selena Gomez follows a long line of women, including Cheryl Cole, in hitting back at the press.
