It’s safe to say Raquelle Stevens saw the commentary regarding My Mind & Me — but Selena Gomez’s best friend is doing just fine.
“Anytime you do anything public in life, you’re subject to opinions of other people. … You just don’t even go there if you’re not willing to be able to take the heat, but, you know, the biggest thing for me was that the documentary was a beautiful, beautiful piece of work that Selena so vulnerably shared with the world,” Stevens, 30, said during a recent interview on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast. “It was her life story, and part of what was included in that documentary was our friendship, which is special and it’s honest, and it’s real.”
Stevens was featured throughout the AppleTV+ doc, which follows Gomez’s life from 2016 to 2020, but made waves online for one tense scene when she questioned why Gomez didn’t want to attend a friend’s birthday party when they returned home from a trip. The spat escalated when Stevens said the “Lose You to Love Me” singer didn’t seem “happy.” Gomez walked away from her friend after denying that she was “complaining” about work.
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“I think what it’s a good reminder of is that when people are scrolling through Instagram or they’re scrolling through TikTok, or you’re watching a documentary, you’re getting a small glimpse into someone’s life, you’re not seeing the full picture,” Stevens told cohosts Maria Ciuffo and Francesca Mariano. “And the truth is we’ve had a friendship for the last decade because it’s real, it’s honest and I’m so grateful for that. And I’m grateful that it was included in the documentary because I think that it is important to see, and I think it’s amazing that Selena welcomes honesty in her friendships and I welcome that in my life too.”
Stevens’ The Sunshine Mind coauthor, Tanya Rad, noted that she was “unshakable” amid any negative fan response after the doc started streaming in November 2022. “She knows who she is. She knows what type of friend she is,” Rad said.
Courtesy of Raquelle Stevens/Instagram
“That’s the other thing too. And I think this is important for people as well when we talk about, you know, doing the 100 day journey [through the book] and strengthening your inner life,” Stevens added on the podcast. “When your inner life is strong and you are living a life with integrity, you sleep peacefully every single night. And it doesn’t matter what you face, what you go through — there’s a peace that comes with living a life of integrity, and so I really am secure in who I am. I know the kind of friend that I am. Anyone really could say anything, but I have a peace that is unshakable.”
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Gomez and Stevens have been friends for years, with the author joining the Disney Channel alum on Selena + Chef among other professional ventures. In the doc, fans hear from Stevens after Gomez’s “psychotic break” in 2016, which led the singer to cancel her Revival tour and check into treatment.
“Her answer was, like, ‘I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I wish you could feel what it feels like to be in my head.’ I just remember it being very chaotic and she was hearing all of these voices,” Stevens recalled. “That triggered some sort of psychotic break.”
Gomez announced in 2019 that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The Only Murders in the Building star also has lupus.
“When you’re struggling with your mental health, the essential part of it is knowing what to do and recognizing that,” Gomez explained in the film. “It’s something that I’m not ashamed of. I had to relearn things. I completely fell out of my mind. It was like, ‘Hey, you’re not a bad person, you’re not a gross person, you’re not any of this. But you’re going to have to deal with this. I know it’s a lot, but this is the reality.’ And I found having a relationship with [being] bipolar and myself — it’s going to be there. I’m just making it my friend to know. I think that I needed to go through that to be who I am and I’m going to keep going through that.”
Source: usmagazine.com
