Selena Gomez Says Tabloid Coverage Made Her Open Up About Her Life: ‘It Was Killing Me’

Selena Gomez explained in a new interview why she has chosen to reveal so much about her personal life to her fans.

The 27-year-old pop star spoke with comedian Amy Schumer for the new issue of Interview Magazine out Monday, revealing that tabloid coverage was “taking away my narrative and it was killing me.”

Schumer acknowledged Gomez’s megawatt level of fame, telling her, “You can’t cough without it being trending news,” and noting her volume of Instagram followers (173 million and counting).

“The sad part is that I don’t remember a time when that wasn’t the case. What has kept me afloat is that I know eventually it’ll be someone else — and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Gomez explained.

“Sometimes it’s been bad for my career, but other times it’s like, ‘Now I can talk about things like my depression and anxiety, things that I’ve struggled with and which I’m totally open about, because I believe in seeking help,’” she said.

Schumer then pressed the “Lose You to Love Me” singer on what motivates her to share “personal parts” of her life “with so many people watching.”

“My intention was never to become a tabloid. So when things kind of happened that way, it got out of control. And then I was like, ‘Wait, none of this is true,’” said Gomez. She continued:

The way the media has sometimes tried to explain things has made it sound really bad, when in reality there’s nothing wrong with the fact that I needed to go away or that I fell in love. I had to start opening up because people were taking away my narrative and it was killing me. I’m so young and I’m going to keep changing, and no one has the right to tell me how my life’s going.

Later in the interview, Gomez says that while she doesn’t know if it was “meant to be” that she shares so much with fans, she still cares “a lot.”

“I’ve gone through a lot of medical issues, and I know that I can reach people who are going through similarly scary things — an organ transplant, or being on dialysis, or going away for treatment. A huge part of why I have a platform is to help people,” she said, later adding: “I know that I’m making someone somewhere feel good, or feel understood or heard, and that’s worth it for me.”

Gomez has been vocal about her various health issues over the years. In 2015, she told fans about that she underwent chemotherapy for lupus and took a break from her career to focus on her mental health. In 2017, she announced that she had a kidney transplant because of her lupus diagnosis.

Earlier this year, she revealed to Miley Cyrus in a livestream that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

“After years of going through a lot of different things, I realized that I was bipolar and so when I go to know more information, it actually helps me,” she told Cyrus. “It doesn’t scare me once I know it. I think people get scared of that, right?”

Read the full interview at Interview Magazine.