Last summer, Selena Gomez reveled that she underwent a life-saving kidney transplant due to her battle with lupus.
In a new interview with W, Gomez’s best friend — and kidney donor— Francia Raisa, revealed that the three-hour surgery nearly killed the singer.
“Recovery was hard,” The Grown-ish actress told the magazine. “I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to drink anything. Selena did have a complication, too. A few hours after our surgery, I woke up and had a text from her that said, ‘I’m really scared.’ My kidney was very active, and when it turned I broke an artery. They had to take her into emergency surgery and get a vein from her leg and build a new artery to keep my kidney in place. She could have died.”
The “Wolves” singer publicly spoke about her lupus for the first time in 2015, after leaving the spotlight to focus on her health. She told Billboard, “I was diagnosed with [autoimmune disease] lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy. That’s what my break was really about. I could’ve had a stroke.”
Gomez, who was most recently spotted at Justin Bieber’s father’s wedding, has been busy over the last year. She was one of the producers of the hit Netlifx Show 13 Reasons Why, and is still working on her third solo album, the follow-up to 2015’s Revival.
Last month, she told Harpers Bazaar that she is working on gaining her confidence back. “My next album has been forever in the making.
When people ask me why, I’m honest about it: It’s because I haven’t been ready,” Gomez said. “If that takes 10 years, then it takes 10 years. I don’t care. Right now I just want to be super intentional with all of the things I’m doing.”