Francia Raisa is sharing some insight into her longtime friendship with Selena Gomez, revealing that their ups and downs over the years had “nothing to do with the kidney” transplant.
“Sometimes, I feel people need to spend time apart in order to grow,” Raisa, 35, told Extra TV at Gomez’s inaugural Rare Impact Fund Benefit on Wednesday, October 4. “We had to almost go on our own journey and grow.”
Raisa explained that she needed to “take some time for myself and figure out what the hell was going on with me, because I wasn’t OK.”
While she didn’t share many specifics about what went down, the How I Met Your Father star alluded to her bumpy past.
“I went through a lot in my childhood, and I will be talking about it very soon,” Raisa added. “[Selena] has been such a huge support through all of that.”
Raisa and Gomez, 31, met when they starred on Secret Life of the American Teenager and Wizards of Waverly Place, respectively. At the time, the duo connected and — as Raisa put it — “trauma-bonded” while visiting kids at a children’s hospital.
“We started talking, we both had boyfriends at the time, we started kiki-ing,” Raisa recalled on Wednesday. “Around the time that my boyfriend and I broke up, and [she] and her boyfriend broke up, she called me and was like, ‘I am going through some stuff … I am going through a breakup.’ I was like, ‘Girl, me too,’ and we were just inseparable after that ever since.”
In 2017, Gomez revealed that her “beautiful friend” Raisa had given her “the ultimate gift” and donated one of her kidneys. (Gomez revealed two years prior that she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus.)
“I’m very aware some of my fans had noticed I was laying low for part of the summer and questioning why I wasn’t promoting my new music, which I was extremely proud of,” Gomez shared via Instagram after her procedure. “So, I found out I needed to get a kidney transplant due to my Lupus and was recovering. It was what I needed to do for my overall health.”
In the years that followed the transplant, fans started to speculate that tension was brewing between the pair. Feud rumors were fueled even further after Gomez referred to Taylor Swift as her “only friend in the industry” during a November 2022 interview with Rolling Stone.
Raisa, for her part, seemingly threw shade at the comment at the time but asserted to TMZ earlier this year that she and Gomez don’t have any “beef.”
On Wednesday, Raisa explained that a turning point in their friendship was when Gomez celebrated her 30th birthday in 2022.
“I am a different person today than I was last year or even when I turned 30. I’m 35 now,” she shared. “Even when Selena turned 30, I’m like, ‘It’s different, isn’t it?’ and she was like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Welcome to your 30s. Now we can get to know each other again.’”
Raisa went on to say that even though things can get “rocky and tricky” in friendships, she and Gomez are all good.
“People grow, relationships change. Obviously, I treat her like my little sister, she treats me like her older sister. … I don’t know any relationship that’s perfect,” Raisa said, noting she’s “happy” to be “celebrating and supporting” Gomez.
