Selena Gomez Opens Up About Kidney Donor Francia Raisa After Transplant
Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa recently sat down with Savannah Guthrie for an interview that is set to air on the Today show on Monday of next week.
Weeks after the 25-year-old "Bad Liar" singer confirmed she had underwent a kidney transplant in an emotional post to her fans and followers on Instagram, she and her actress kidney donor participated in a joining interview about the moments leading up to Gomez's surgery.
“I didn’t want to ask a single person in my life,” Gomez recall, according to a report shared by Us Weekly magazine on October 27. “And she volunteered and did it.”
Gomez was forced to undergo a kidney transplant after the organs began to fail due to her ongoing struggles with Lupus. As fans of the singer will recall, Gomez confirmed she was suffering from Lupus years ago and in 2016, she told People magazine that the illness had begun to impact her mental health.
At the same time, Gomez said she had been experiencing anxiety, depression, and panic attacks and revealed she was cancelling her Revival World Tour and would be taking a break from the spotlight to address her issues.
From there, Gomez remained out of the spotlight for several months until making her return at the 2016 American Music Awards.
One year later, as she began releasing new music, including the tracks "Bad Liar" and "Fetish," Gomez spoke to her fans about her kidney transplant, revealing that her friend Raisa stepped up and offered her kidney to her.
“Francia is a wonderful friend with a huge heart,” a source told Us Weekly magazine at the time.
“They’ve thought of each other as sisters, and beyond their obvious bond through work and womanhood, they also share a lot through their faith and being Latina," the insider continued of Gomez and Raisa's years-long relationship with one another. "Francia is incredibly supportive and would provide a shoulder to cry on for any friend in need. She really is a wonderfully special person.”
In other Selena Gomez news, the singer is currently going strong with boyfriend The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, whom she went public with earlier this year after enjoying a meal together at Santa Monica's Giorgia Baldi restaurant.
Gomez was also recently seen hanging out with her former boyfriend, Justin Bieber, but the two are not involved romantically.
