Selena Gomez Emotionally Opens Up About Her Secret Kidney Transplant | THR News - video Dailymotion

Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa share the story behind the secret kidney transplant the two underwent earlier this year.

Transcript

00:00Selena Gomez is finally opening up about the secret kidney transplant she

00:11underwent earlier this year in an emotional and revealing new interview

00:15with NBC News that aired on Monday's Today show. Back in September, Gomez

00:19revealed the news of her surgery in an Instagram post. Now, speaking alongside

00:23her kidney donor and friend, actress Francia Raisa, Gomez detailed the serious

00:28health complications she was experiencing from lupus, an autoimmune

00:31disease she was diagnosed with five years ago. I had arthritis. I, my kidneys were

00:36shutting down. I just kept, my mentality was just to keep going. Gomez was in a

00:41life-threatening state of health when she finally shared the news with her friend

00:44and roommate Raisa. Raisa told Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, one day she came

00:49home and she was emotional. I hadn't asked anything. I knew that she hadn't been

00:53feeling well. She couldn't open a water bottle one day. She chopped it.

00:58And she started crying. And I said, what's wrong? And that's when she told me. And

01:02she goes, I don't know what to do. The list is seven to ten years long.

01:05Without hesitation, Raisa volunteered to get tested and it turned out she was a

01:10match. The actress had to write a will out of precaution that she wouldn't wake up

01:14post-surgery, something her mom struggled with. She said, my mom loves Selena. She was

01:19torn. And although Raisa was a match, Gomez said that she hadn't wanted to ask

01:23anyone to be tested as it was difficult. Gomez also revealed that after the surgery,

01:27she began hyperventilating and feeling a lot of pain near her kidneys. Doctors told

01:32her that her new kidney was turning around inside her body and she had to go

01:35back into surgery. She told Guthrie, it was a six-hour surgery that they had to do. And

01:41the normal kidney process is normally two hours. The friends also detailed the

01:45recovery process, revealing that it consisted of strict bed rest, with walking

01:49being limited to less than an hour a day. Raisa explained, it was hard because you

01:54constantly needed to ask for help. I think one of the most humbling experiences was

01:58needing help to put on underwear. We couldn't take showers by ourselves. It was a

02:02really brutal process. After recovery, Gomez shared that the surgery transformed

02:06her health. Her arthritis went away and there's now a three to five percent chance

02:10her lupus will return. For the full Today Show interview, head to THR.com. For The

02:15Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.