You’re Not Alone: Celebrities Who Have Serious Illnesses

A True Friend: Gomez Receives Kidney Transplant From Fellow Actress

Instagram/ @selenagomez

By 2017, Gomez was pushing herself hard despite her lupus diagnosis, so much so that her kidneys began failing on her. “After undergoing so many tests to monitor my kidneys my doctors told me I have lupus nephritis, one of those complications from lupus. They said I would be needing a kidney transplant… Maybe I wasn’t necessarily really good at knowing what that meant so it actually got to a point where it was life-or-death.”

In September, fellow actress Francia Raisa volunteered to donate her kidney to Gomez. “Thankfully, one of my best friends gave me her kidney and it was the ultimate gift of life,” she said at the Lupus Research Alliance Annual Gala that November.

Next, read about the disease model Gigi Hadid is managing behind the scenes.