Another day, another Selena Gomez controversy seemingly unrelated to Selena herself. This beef relates entirely to Francia Raísa, Selena's one-time best friend and kidney donor and it's pretty twisty. Let's explain.
Francia Raísa and Selena Gomez' friendship has been the subject of much discussion since 2017, when Franca donated a kidney to Selena. In November 2022, as part of a magazine interview, Selena Gomez called Taylor Swift her "only friend in the industry."
When Selena posted the feature on Instagram, Francia Raísa commented, "Interesting" (it's possible that Selena's quote was edited before being published or that she simply was referring to Taylor as her only high-profile musician friend).
Stans have since observed that though Selena still follows Franca on Instagram, Franca doesn't follow Selena.
Selena also called Franca her best friend in a second interview that took place in March 2023.
“I will never, ever, ever be more in debt to a person than Francia," Selena said. "The idea of someone not even second-guessing to be a [kidney] donor was unbelievably overwhelming.”
However, on May 1, Franca spoke candidly to paparazzi about no one in particular — when a TMZ photographer asked Franca about her friendship with Selena Gomez, Franca deflected.
“I’m Francia, I’m hanging out with my dog,” she said.
Selena and Franca's supposed controversy flared up big time when a viral tweet suggested that Selena and Franca were beefing over an unsubstantiated rumor: that Franca didn't support Selena drinking alcohol because it supposedly harmed the kidney that Franca donated to Selena.
Of course, this disregards the biological truth that alcohol weakens the liver, not the kidneys.
It also presupposes that Selena is actually drinking enough to even cause some sort of long-term side effect which is, again, total speculation.
On May 8, Franca Raísa again caught up with paparazzi to talk her side of the story; she's been receiving vicious hate on Instagram following the one-sided — and possibly non-existent — beef.
"To me, [cyber-bullying] is not what anyone wants," Franca said. Selena is "literally out there saying 'Please stop,' and I don't understand why it's not stopping. Not just for me, others that are also being antagonized online."
"I'm living my life, I'm sending my love to everyone. I understand: I've been a hardcore fan of people myself growing up. I totally, totally get it but it's not nice."
Of course, Franca is referencing the Selena Gomez/Hailey Bieber drama that spiraled out of control in early 2023, when an out-of-context TikTok and subsequent backlash brought the wrath of the internet to Hailey Bieber's door.
Following the outpouring of vitriol that sidetracked Bieber's Instagram comment section for months, Selena Gomez told fans to stand down in the name of love.
It's funny that Selena Gomez, an otherwise easygoing person (especially as far as celebrities go), has fans that're so defensive that they themselves become the bullies.
To this day, there's still an endless parade of drama in Selena's Instagram comment section (naturally, all the folks in there are sympathetic to Selena) but it's indicative of how far-reaching these effects go.
Whatever's happening with Selena Gomez and Francia Raísa is between them but, unfortunately, it's become the entire internet's business.
