Francia Raisa says there’s no real reason she and Selena Gomez fell out, but notes that the estrangement was good for their now-repaired relationship.
In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, the How I Met Your Father actor opened up about her reconciliation with the “Single Soon” singer, explaining that “we never really had beef with each other.”
“Nothing happened, and if you ask either of us, we don’t know what happened,” Raisa, 35, said. “But we needed that time apart.”
“Then when you come back together, you’re better people,” Raisa added. “She and I are still getting to know each other again.”
Raisa went on to note she finds it “crazy” that people are so invested in their friendship, which has gone through ups and downs since the pair met as teenagers in 2007. About a decade later, Raisa donated one of her kidneys to Gomez, 31.
In 2018, Raisa told former talk show host Harry Connick Jr. that both she and Gomez went through a period of depression when the transplant surgery was complete.
Fans began questioning whether there was trouble between the two when, in a 2022 Rolling Stone interview, Gomez called Taylor Swift her “only friend” in the industry. Gomez also didn’t mention Raisa in her Apple TV+ documentary, which featured some of her friends.
Raisa appeared to take offense, commenting about it in a now-deleted social media remark. Gomez seemingly responded to backlash online in a comment under a TikTok video that speculated about the alleged rift. “Sorry I didn’t mention every person I know,” Gomez wrote at the time.
In her interview with USA Today, the Grown-ish star confirmed that she didn’t talk to Gomez much in 2022, but they met up following Gomez’s public birthday message to her friend. “I don’t know why the universe decided this timing … then she reached out and said, ‘Let’s talk,’ ” said Raisa, adding that the two decided during dinner that “it’s no beef, just salsa.”
Raisa also stressed that even amid their estrangement, she never regretted giving Gomez her kidney.
“And obviously, you know, I gave the girl a kidney so everyone felt a certain way and I was asked for years and years and years, ‘Do you regret it?’ and I was like, ‘No, the relationship has always been there,’ ” said Raisa. “There was just a tiff.”