Selena Gomez is opening up in a big way, and fans are loving every moment. The 33-year-old singer, actress, and Rare Beauty founder recently sat down with Jake Shane on his podcast, Therapuss, and shared candid insights about her life, from her tight-knit friendship with Taylor Swift to how she met her now-fiancé Benny Blanco, to her mental health journey and passion for beauty with purpose.
On growing up in the spotlight: “Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah,” Selena joked. “And I’m going to continue to, but I guess it is a bit different when you have gone through the motions of the teenage years to 20s and to early 30s. By all means. I have nothing figured out. I just hope that I’ve just become a little bit more mature in a lot of areas.”
On how she met Benny Blanco: Selena recalls meeting Benny for the first time when she was just 16. “We met when I was 16 because we were going to possibly work together but I didn’t start releasing music until 17/18 officially and so we saw each other around,” she said. “It was nice and then I don’t know. I feel like he was an acquaintance, if that makes sense.”
Their early collaborations, including “Same Old Love” and “I Can’t Get Enough,” were fun but didn’t spark anything romantic. “I just thought he was funny. This guy’s so funny but I didn’t think anything of it,” she admitted.
Timing, as always, was everything. “Simply you just have to be there mentally in order to move forward with something healthy.”
The spark reignited when they worked on “Single Soon.” Selena shared, “It wasn’t our favorite…just because I can say this cause I’m marrying him. Just really wasn’t what I thought I wanted.” But then something clicked. “We spoke for two hours and I asked him to hook me up with anybody that he knew that was cute and he was like ‘Oh we do these things, these dinner nights. You should come’ and next thing you know we’re dating.”
Despite his initial hesitation, Selena knew what she wanted. “He was terrified in the beginning cause he was like it was work and it’s combining and people are going to get mad and I’m like, ‘don’t give a s–t kiss me.’”
On her 16-year friendship with Taylor Swift: “Taylor and I dated the Jonas Brothers. We dated, I dated Nick and she dated Joe. And everything was it was cute, we were young,” Selena reminisced. “We all know and love each other now and it’s so cute. We don’t know what we were doing.”
She continued, “She and I like to say the best thing we got out of those relationships was each other because it was really sweet.”
“I believe ‘Love Story’ was the first song she had ever played me and it wasn’t released yet,” she shared. “Yeah, I was in a hotel room and I remember it vividly, it was just one of those songs I instantly heard and thought this is one of the most beautiful songs ever.”
On the inspiration behind Rare Beauty: “So it was about over 5 years ago and I recorded this song called ‘Rare’ and – I loved the song so much and the words seemed very true to where I was,” Selena explained. “My favorite line of the whole song is ‘I know I’m not perfect. But I know that I’m special.’ That’s the kind of gratitude that I think keeps me solid and alive.”
On her mental health: “I just believe in therapy,” she said simply. “I’m on medication and I feel really lucky that I’m in the position that I’m in now and I believe in all of that.”
On giving Rare Beauty deeper purpose: “I tried to share my story in hopes that it would be something to help others,” Selena said. “Anything I’m a part of, it has to give back. That’s always been my key demographic — people who don’t feel seen or heard.”
On getting married: “I couldn’t be more excited,” she gushed. “I just have really never felt so sure about something and I also don’t want to jinx it by saying that.”
