Selena Gomez: 'My experiences in relationships have been cursed'

22 June 2021

Selena Gomez thinks her past relationships have been “cursed”.

Selena Gomez

The 28-year-old singer has had high-profile romances with the likes of Justin Bieber and The Weeknd, but has now said she has been made to feel “less than” in many of her former relationships.

Selena spoke as she explained why the word “rare” means so much to her, after she got it tattooed on her neck, named her Rare Beauty makeup line after it, and used the term for the title of her most recent album.

In a conversation with Vogue Australia, she said: “I think most of my experiences in relationships have been cursed. I’ve been way too young to be exposed to certain things when I was in relationships. I guess I needed to find what was that word for me, because I felt so less than in past relationships, and never really felt equal.

“It wasn’t even necessarily like: ‘Oh, I feel that way, let me sing it.’ It was almost like: ‘Actually, I need to feel that way about myself.’ I think that my family, and my chosen family - I feel like I’m surrounded by real people.”

Meanwhile, the ‘Lose You to Love Me’ hitmaker is known for being open about her mental health, and recently said it has given her a "sense of freedom" as she bids to normalise conversations about it.

She shared: "I think it's less scary when you talk about it. So, that’s some sense of freedom that I gained once I did.

"I think I had a moment where I felt different, like, 'Why do I react this way?' 'Why do I feel the way I do and nobody else does?' and I had to figure that out. I think my journey personally has been all about my timing."

And Selena also slammed society's "impossible beauty standards" for negatively impacting people’s mental health.

She said: "Society constantly tells us that we’re not enough, so I wanted to start a brand to challenge and eliminate that pressure - to change the conversation.

“My goal with Rare Beauty is to break down these unrealistic standards of beauty. I saw from personal experience how these impossible beauty standards were having such an effect on my mental health and I know a lot of people who felt the same way."