The long awaited Selena Gomez update: New era, documentary, dating life, her health, and what's next
Selena Gomez photographed by Dario Calmese for Vogue Arabia January 2021
Ah Selena…
It’s been a very long time since I talked about my homegirl, Selena Gomez and you guys have been begging for an update for many months so here it is. This is a juicy one so get something nice to drink while you digest this information.
Dating Life
When it comes to real-life dating, Selena often keeps her romances private. I know that’s shocking considering Selena’s relationships that you do know about are usually high profile—Justin Bieber & The Weeknd.
If you’ve been here for a while, you’ll remember what we used to say about Selena’s personal dating life. She loves low-key non-famous guys in her PERSONAL life. When it comes to her career, it’s all about PR and publicity.
For example, I remember hearing about how she was in love with Andrea Iervolino, who is an Italian-Canadian producer. He’s in his thirties and she was all over Italy with him in the summer of 2019.
He was also the only guy around in the group which consisted of her besties (and grandma tagging along). You guys don’t really think celebrities go to Europe and miss out on the sex part, do you?
Photo: MEGA
Also, he was the person that she was also spending summer 2018 with him. At that point, Justin was engaged to Hailey and Selena was fresh off the Jelena breakup. So she and Andrea were close during that time and the thing is, they’ve known each other since 2016.
So whenever Selena claims she’s single, she usually isn’t. She did have serious relationships in the past, but she’ll never talk about them because it’ll deflect away from the Justin-cheated-on-me narrative.
This brings me to Jimmy Butler.
In September 2020, I told you guys that Selena was secretly dating someone and they may go public.
Lo and behold, November 2020 came around and there was news about how Jimmy and Selena were spotted cozying up on a date. Onlookers reported the news to Instagram gossip account, Deuxmoi.
Eventually, it was picked up by mainstream media and I even posted about it on my Instagram (exposingsmgblog).
Was the guy I was talking about Jimmy? Possibly. The dates are matching up and when my source told me the information in September, I revealed it at that time because she said it might become public.
Selena did want to keep it private for a while and my source even says, “It could’ve been him because I was told it was an industry person she wanted to keep private. If E writes about it, it’s definitely a thing someone from the inside is giving them proof about.”
So yes, Jimmy & Selena had a casual thing, but they’re no longer together. It fizzled out completely. If Selena didn’t want the news out, her team wouldn’t have spoken about it to E!. It also might have to do with the fact that the news was circling around because of Deuxmoi, but once it goes to mainstream media, it spreads even more.
Getty Images ; Instagram
Despite Selena not being photographed that much, it doesn’t mean that she isn’t dating behind closed doors. As you can tell, celebrities can control when/where they’re photographed. As I said, she has had serious relationships with older men that were never made public. I’ve also heard several rumors that she was pregnant or had pregnancy scares.
I also have a theory about the Jelena breakup in 2018 which I’ll talk about in this next section.
trigger warning: Jelena
Jelena
Backgrid
A PSA about the 2018 Jelena breakup:
To my readers who have been around for many years, you guys remember my 2018 Jelena post being deleted from Tumblr, right? That was the one post I never got the chance to backup (Selena: 1, esmg: 0) so it was gone forever.
However, I do remember ranting a lot and I wanted to choke while writing it. So with that being said, I still have the messages backed up—do you want me to remake that post but 2021 version? I’m saying this because over the past three years, I’ve gotten endless questions and confusion about their breakup and it’s not your fault; there is no post up.
If you want it, let me know.
With my sources getting more information from many different circles throughout the years, additional information started coming out. At the end of 2020, my source who gave the original 2018 information, was spilling insane tea that we withheld at the time to be cautious, but basically, it was adding on to the Jelena breakup.
What I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t black & white nor was it just “Justin doesn’t wanna deal with Selena’s mind games and Hillsong wanted them together and they hated Hailey and he always loved Hailey.”
Backgrid
There was a lot more to it and a lot of weird relationships between Hillsong pastors & Selena specifically. Random hookups… weird blackmail… honestly it confuses me, so I don’t expect you guys to even get it.
I have to see how I’d reveal that information and if I can, but I wanted to include this now to be transparent. I didn’t feel comfortable withholding information or acting like it was black & white on a topic that I was mainly known for.
As for my theory:
I think one of the main nails in the Jelena breakup had to be Selena getting pregnant from some other guy and that truly being the last strike for that relationship. If you remember, we said that both Justin & Selena were NOT exclusive during that time. He was in contact with Hailey and Selena was dating around. However, I believe that Selena’s version of ‘dating around’ was sleeping around that ended up with her getting pregnant because there were a lot of pregnancy rumors going around inside circles during that time.
Backgrid
Selena was extremely important to Justin so I doubt that the mind games were enough to break them off. I boast about how I’m the main insider for Jelena and I take pride in that, but the tea is, I don’t know everything. There’s definitely a lot more that happened that is beyond my source’s knowledge. However, I can dedicate an entire post to that breakup and include the messages from 2018 if you want.
Modern-time Jelena (ew, I know):
Here is random tea about Selena & Hailey that I exposed on Instagram:
On Instagram, I exposed that Selena’s team was still paying the press to plant stories about Jelena.
It’s just not normal that Justin has been married for nearly 3 years now and yet there’s still a Jelena story from time to time. The media works hand in hand with the celebrity so who do you think is making sure that this topic still circulates around?
“Speaking of Justin and Selena! Jelena still lives beyond Justin’s marriage. I got word that Selena’s team is still paying the press to mention the two. Yes, her team is still having [the] press write about them. Literally paying to keep them in the news together.
Selena is hanging on to this “my crazed playboy ex broke me so badly” narrative, watch her spin [it] into he’s the reason she became addicted to drugs. It’s insane because they both were equally involved in each other’s stress and doing drugs together.”
— my source
I was told that in February 2021 and the messages will be at the end of the post as per usual.
I even said on Instagram that I don’t blame Selena for this, it’s not really her fault that that’s what brings in the clicks. Her team does what’s good for business.
Another thing my source told me is that Justin looks at his marriage to Hailey as an accomplishment and something he’s achieving daily. She says, “With Selena, they naturally gravitated and their highs and toxicity kept them basically feining for each other, but nothing besides reconciling a codependent relationship was being achieved.”
I’ve also touched upon that in the latest Jailey post—Justin & Selena were a burning passionate love and you could see it. With Hailey, it’s more… normal, I guess.
However…
I got some information on Jailey coming up that’s not so pleasant. Don’t spam my comment section for this Jailey topic… the post is coming. That is all.
Selena’s Health
Selena’s health is always a rollercoaster—there are highs and lows. It’s a cycle that constantly repeats. When you guys ask for a health update, it’s usually “she’s weaning off the drugs slowly” or “she’s really bad.”
Use your imagination, what do you think is happening? It’s the same thing over and over again.
I will say that she is currently better than what I reported in March 2020. March 2020 was bad… like really bad. And then there was another update with her reportedly living in a sober house. At the time, I didn’t know whether or not that was true, but I can now confidently say it was 100% true.
I’ll also tell you that all hell broke loose when we exposed that information because drama erupted of “who’s the mole that leaked this” and Selena moved out and moved into the new house that she purchased earlier in the year.
The Order of Events:
One of you guys also brought up a good point in the April ask box where you said that you don’t think that the main issue right now is drugs, but rather her mental health and the longtime battle she’s had with herself.
I don’t think the drug usage is as bad as it was, but yes, Selena’s mental health has basically crippled her. It’s why she’s extremely private now, never on social media, and everything is closely monitored. There were years were Selena would just be extremely bitter and compare herself to everyone and keep tabs on everything (mainly Justin) and that took a heavy toll on her.
My source says, “Selena still does stimulants, her team wanted her to start placebo drugs and make her believe she’s taking stimulants, but she’s still doing those and nicotine.”
I also heard that she calmed down with the alcohol.
But this is the problem. It’s a cycle with Selena. I can say all of this and next month we’re back to the March 2020 update. I hope not though.
The Rare era was cut off short because of how bad her health was at the time. She would basically show up to work events nearly passed out, hungover, or high. Imagine the 2019 AMAs, but at interviews or just random events.
For example, when she had that interview with Ryan Seacrest & Kelly Ripa in January 2020, everyone knew something was off. There was even an article on Yahoo about how fans were concerned for Selena because of how awkward the interview was and how out of it she looked.
You know what was up? She was high off her ass and I’m pretty sure she was also hungover.
She even made a joke about it on her story and laughed about how she’s only on 3 hours of sleep. It was written off as “haha so quirky, hard working kween,” but we all know what was going on during that time.
Endless partying and substances that shouldn’t be around.
Because her health was so horrible during this time and she was even hospitalized at one point, many things were postponed (I’ll talk about this in the next section) and events were being picked slowly and in advance.
I remember she had an interview with Kelly Clarkson that was announced at least a month before it was actually airing & being filmed. Why? Selena was basically told “work toward this goal… you have to be okay for this event.”
March 9, 2020
She looked really good there. It was like she looked refreshed and she was just in the hospital the week before that.
Usually during an era, an artist has a crap ton of appearances lined up for them. That’s what Selena was doing during the release of Lose You To Love Me in October 2019. She was everywhere, but then she dipped because she had a really bad health scare and you guys remember her drunk out of her mind at the AMAs.
Getty / Robert Kamau
Then she disappeared again and when it came time to release Rare and do promo for it, events were cherry picked. They couldn’t book her for a million things at once because it wasn’t guaranteed that she could do it.
In February 2021, Selena was scheduled to perform with Rauw Alejandro at Premios Lo Nuestro.
The performance was marketed as a special LIVE performance, but it ended up being some weird alternative music video.
If Selena is canceling anything or something seems suspicious, the answer is usually she pulled out because of her health situation. Now I don’t know if the plan was always that weird music video as opposed to a real performance with a MICROPHONE, but here’s what my source said:
“Selena isn’t looking too well physically these days, that could’ve been it. I think she has to build her confidence back up for the stage.”
The new era and what’s next
Documentary
Selena has been working on a documentary for so many years and it was supposed to be released but got postponed several times.
In February, my source told me, “Selena’s team is in the works of a documentary series… word is there will be more sob stories about her and Justin’s relationship. Their drug abuse.”
When she said “their drug abuse" I was like:
Will Selena actually ever come clean about that?
“Yeah I do think she’ll talk about drugs in the documentary. It’ll definitely be more transparent. I think she’s reached a place closer to death and has realized that people will more sympathize than antagonize her for the abuse she’s done. It’s somewhat a manipulative thing, but I think that’s why all celebrities do documentaries.
It’s always to shift blame and public opinion. I doubt anyone will look at her as nothing more than a survivor.”
— my source
I can’t believe I’ve seen Selena go from a partying drug addict to a literal depressed one. I mean hey, the narrative will work in her favor after all.
I was also told that this is the same documentary that they were working on for years (but it was constantly postponed/delayed).
“It’s the same documentary and if I’m not mistaken, it’s going to be streamed on a major platform.”
— my source
But what will happen to her vanilla image that they preserved and the morality clause tea that you exposed before?
“They’ve definitely exercised all their options [about Selena’s image and relevancy]. Although they still try to connect her name to Justin through the media, Selena won’t become mainstream unless she’s attached to someone else or she exposes her true image.”
— my source
Photographed by Nadine Ijewere, Vogue, April 2021
Selena’s vanilla-pure image is far from who she is. I’m not saying she’s the devil (she’s definitely had her devilish years though), but Selena is this freaky-sexy-villain-you-end-up-enjoying-because-they’re-cool type of person. I think somehow, the drug use will be talked about because what more is Selena gonna talk about? The disease she couldn’t get right?
You realize how she doesn’t talk about her lupus anymore or what she’s going through with that? It’s because it didn’t go well for her the first time. First of all, it didn’t bring in the relevance needed. It gave her pity sure, but that didn’t translate to sales. Second of all, she was out here calling it cancer. She couldn’t memorize what she was supposed to say about lupus.
Photographed by Nadine Ijewere, Vogue, April 2021
Nowadays, it’s something that she’ll avoid talking about and sometimes, it’s even requested that people don’t bring it up. She’ll bring it up on her cooking show when she can’t squeeze lemons, but if someone questions her about it, she’ll mess up. It’s not because she doesn’t have the disease or whatever that story is, it’s because she was struggling with drug addiction. Whether or not it was heightened by lupus or it was lupus-induced, the main problem has always been addiction.
So that’s the update on lupus.
About her image:
“Her team is big on savoring her Disney princess image. It’s weird considering the GP most likely doesn’t care. What she does in Hollywood isn’t far fetched and many before her have [done the same]. I think if she opens up more, then what else would come out is how toxic she was with her exes. A lot of stories about the lives she ruined would not only come out, but seem more believable.”
Ah my lovely source, she summed it all in one paragraph.
Everyone has a past and it eventually catches up with you. If you’ve been keeping up with our Selena posts from 2013-2016, you’d know that this girl was something else. The bitterness would eat her alive and she would lash out in the vilest ways.
If she sees red, it’s over.
Even at 21 she was a horrible person to work with. I would say that was the year she was the rudest. She was finally tasting real-adult fame for the first time after Disney and it got to her head. Anyone who met or worked with her said she’s the worst.
Nowadays, Selena is an angel. She’s one of the nicest people to work with and she’s really polite. I think it has a lot to do with maturity and just going through things. So she’s definitely changed in that aspect.
A new era is coming….
My source tells me that “there’s deals with streaming services she’s waiting to announce as well.”
Selena hinted at retiring and I spoke about it in a pop culture digest video. I specifically talked about how Selena has been wanting to retire from music because that’s not her passion.
I don’t know why that’s such a hard pill for Selenators to swallow. From 2011-2013, the usual comeback that her fans would use when people talk about her declining stats was “that’s not even her real passion, that’s a side hobby! She’s an actress who’s singing for fun.”
I’ve been around since the Ice Age. I remember everything.
Selena likes music because it’s fun. Catch her when she’s talking about her music. What is the one word she repeats as if it’s gold? “It’s fun :)” “That song is fun :)” “You know, it’s fun :)” I mean thank God she made a song called Fun on the Rare album, am I right?
The only reason Selena kept up with the singing is because that’s where she would excel. She originally planned for Stars Dance to be her last album in 2013 because she had like 20 movies & acting projects lined up. Where are they now? Exactly.
If Selena booked a nice acting gig in 2013 and went on to get nominated for an Oscar or Emmy, I promise you, she would have never came back to music. Acting is her true passion and that’s what she’s trying to work on the most.
She’s trying to be taken seriously as an actress which is why she didn’t care what anyone said about her working with the rapist Woody Allen. He was like the only big & important person in the acting world that would give her the time of day and listen, it doesn’t come without a price. She had to pay for that (not in terms of money).
Splash News
And she never apologized for it nor will she. She doesn’t feel sorry and I believe there is some sort of agreement where she can’t come out against him… at least not now.
I will give it to Selena though, her acting has gotten better. I saw the trailer for her Hulu show Only Murders in the Building and it looked really cool. I think I’m going to watch it.
Craig Blankenhorn
Selena as a person
I wasn’t going to include this mini section, but as someone who’s been around since the Ice Age, I’ve seen a lot go down with my celebrity topics.
I have a whole Selena As A Person series where I rip her to shreds #fantings, but I will say that the way Selena deals with HERSELF (not people) is with elegance.
I’m very fond of how she carries herself because I see how celebrities handle themselves in the public eye and how it negatively reflects back on them and their career. There are negative things that Selena has done that ended up biting her in the ass because what goes around comes around, but she does have really good qualities in how she handles herself.
For example, she isn’t always posting her every thought on Twitter/Instagram just like her peers. By not always posting online she gives people a chance to miss her so that when she does post a photo, everyone is in awe. We often obsess and love the things that are out of reach to us and Selena is someone we all find so interesting because she carries a mysterious atmosphere around her. This is how she is on social media. In real life, Selena still keeps you wanting more because she doesn’t fully give herself to the person.
If we are talking about Selena in regards to dating, this is what makes guys fall for her. Besides the fact that she has so much charm, she doesn’t reveal everything about herself which makes people eager to learn more about her and see her again.
I can safely say that I’ve always noticed that Selena does have a sense of humor that isn’t “lolz look at me I’m so quirky” and she is actually pleasing to watch in interviews. The Selena I’m not a huge fan of is this “I’m weak, broken, and a victim” because it’s draining. It’s giving me a tease from all the other pop girlies who can’t help but constantly whine, BUT since she isn’t often appearing on social media; when locals hear her talk about the same story since 2013, they continue falling into the "he broke her so bad” trap or whatever it is Selena is saying/doing.
Selena makes herself exclusive and mysterious and it’s that same image that makes people yearn for her.
She isn’t overexposed. Too much of anything is a bad thing.
Take a look at Miley Cyrus. When it comes to her, the general public is like “what part of her haven’t we seen or heard of” and I realized that career wise, Selena was able to bounce back because her breaks were true breaks. People miss her.
I think this is the main reason why Demi Lovato’s DWTD era went south. Aside from how I ripped sweet Demi to shreds in my last post, there was interest in them when they came back in 2020 but that was ruined by all the collaborations that didn’t live up to the hype. So when they released D7, the interest was gone.
And THAT’S the one thing that Selena does correctly in her career. She allows people to miss her.
Source Messages
There are date jumps because some messages are omitted.
Anyways, that’s all for this post!
I hope I answered all your questions, elaborated on your curiosity, and spilled more tea!
A small update:
I will be posting more and if I’m not posting, it’s simply because I don’t want to (or I’m genuinely busy). I got too burned out from November-February with the constant posting schedules and getting huge ass posts out.
I love this blog, I love you guys, and I love talking about celebrities so I don’t want this to ever turn into something I feel like I’m forced to do. This is in regards to the comments under the last Ariana post. I don’t like rude & entitled readers. I don’t owe anyone anything so please remember that when you’re yelling at me for not seeing your comments or “ignoring” you. If I don’t reply to comments, it’s because I don’t see them. I literally don’t check this blog nor the comment section during my personal life.
So I just wanted to say that tiny rant instead of making a whole post about it.
With that being said, more posts are coming! You guys know how important your requests are to this blog and I do try my best to cater to everyone. Feel free to leave your requests.
Let me know what you think about Selena down in the comments below and about everything we talked about today. You can comment anonymously so take advantage of that. I will be reading and replying back ;)