Selena Gomez Claps Back at Fan Who Criticizes Her for Drinking Alcohol After Her Kidney Transplant

Rachel DeSantis
·3 min read
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Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez
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Emma McIntyre/Getty Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez is defending herself after a fan criticized a TikTok she made in jest about her alcohol consumption.

The "Lose You to Love Me" singer, 29, shared a TikTok video Tuesday night in which she duetted Dr. Dawn Bantel, an Arizona-based naturopathic doctor, talking about what it means to be a "heavy" drinker.

"The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] defines heavy drinking as 15 or more drinks a week for men and eight or more drinks per week for women," Bantel said in the clip.

Gomez responded to the clip by biting her nails and mouthing "Oh," as her facial expression turned somewhat nervous.

In the caption of the video, she wrote, "It's a joke" — but not everyone took it that way.

In a screenshot shared to Twitter of a comment that appears to have been deleted, Gomez responded to a fan who wrote, "So one of your best friends gives you her kidney and you continue to drink excessively. Damn selena."

"It was a joke a—," Gomez responded.

The Only Murders in the Building actress received a kidney transplant in 2017 from her best friend Francia Raisa due to complications from her lupus diagnosis.

"My kidneys were just done," Gomez told the TODAY show that October. "That was it, and I didn't want to ask a single person in my life. The thought of asking someone to do that was really difficult for me. She volunteered and did it. And let alone someone wanting to volunteer, it is incredibly difficult to find a match. The fact that she was a match, I mean that's unbelievable. That's not real."

RELATED: Selena Gomez Calls Out 'Tasteless' Kidney Transplant Reference on The Good Fight, Encourages Organ Donation

She has since publicly hit back at several television shows who used her transplant as the butt of a joke, including The Good Fight and Saved By the Bell.

"I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplant for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently," she wrote on Twitter in August. "I hope in the next writer's room when one of these tasteless jokes are presented it's called out immediately and doesn't make it on air. My fans always have my back. LOVE YOU."

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The Rare Beauty founder then provided a link to OrganDonor.gov, writing, "If you are able to please sign up to be an organ donor."

According to the National Kidney Foundation, one or two drinks "usually has no serious effects" on kidneys. They advise no more than one to two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women and people over 65.

The foundation does, however, note that too much alcohol can dehydrate the body, disrupting the kidney's functions, and can also raise blood pressure, which can cause kidney disease. It can also cause liver disease, which makes it harder for kidneys to do their job.

"The kidneys of heavy drinkers have to work harder," according to the Foundation. "Heavy drinking on a regular basis has been found to double the risk for kidney disease."