Just four months after she split from long-time love Justin Bieber, he married Victoria’s Secret model Hailey Baldwin.
After the wedding last month, the pair embarked on a loved-up tour of Europe, including a stop in London where the Baby singer serenaded his bride outside Buckingham Palace.
Now, just weeks later, Selena has been whisked off to a mental health facility suffering what has been called an “emotional breakdown”. The turn of events has shaken Hollywood, where Selena and Justin had ruled the red carpet since their on-off love began in 2010.
While Justin has battled very publically with his demons, including drugs, violence and trouble with the law, Selena always seemed one of the most grounded Disney starlets.
But just as he seems to have found peace and stability at last, she is facing up to a serious struggle with crippling anxiety and depression.
And it appears her troubles began to spiral out of control at the end of last month, just as Justin, 24, and Hailey, 21, were flaunting their love on their European jaunt.
Back at home, Selena, 26, had been the target of cruel online comments ever since Justin got engaged to the younger woman. On September 23, four days after the newlyweds’ secret wedding had been confirmed, Selena announced that she was taking a break from social media.
After announcing the move to her 144million Instagram followers, she added: “Just remember — negative comments can hurt anybody’s feelings. Obvi.”
Days earlier she had opened up to fans in an hour-long Instagram Live video session, revealing: “Depression was my life for five years straight. Depression and anxiety was the forefront of everything I did in my life, every single thing.”
Selena and Justin broke up this March, amid reports that he was still working through personal issues.
A source said at the time: “Selena realised even though he’s made some positive improvements that they just aren’t a perfect match right now.” Having spent years breaking up before getting back together, Selena perhaps never thought that the latest break-up would be the last.
Indeed, Justin initially tried to win her back, telling friends he loved and missed her. But by June he had rekindled his relationship with Hailey, another former flame, and by July they were engaged. Meanwhile, Selena was enduring the misery of failing health.
In 2014 the star revealed she had discovered she was suffering a painful autoimmune disease. She announced: “I was diagnosed with lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy.”
Chemo can relieve symptoms of the condition, which causes inflammation of the joints, skin, kidneys and brain. But the illness has blighted her life ever since.
Two years later, the Bad Liar singer was in rehab for anxiety and depression.
She told fans in August 2016: “I’ve discovered that anxiety, panic attacks and depression can be side- effects of lupus, which can present their own challenges.
“I want to be proactive and focus on maintaining my health and happiness and have decided that the best way forward is to take some time off.”
Selena’s 90-day treatment in Tennessee came amid her Revival world tour, causing her to cancel the remaining dates. She admitted: “Tours are a really lonely place for me. My self-esteem was shot. I was depressed, anxious.
“I started to have panic attacks right before getting on stage, or right after leaving it. Basically I felt I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t capable. I felt I wasn’t giving my fans anything, and they could see it.”
The ex-child star also found the fact her audience had grown up hard to adapt to — and hard to share her feelings with. She explained: “I was so used to performing for kids.
“At concerts I used to make the entire crowd raise up their pinkies and make a pinky promise never to allow anybody to make them feel that they weren’t good enough. Suddenly I have kids smoking and drinking at my shows, people in their 20s, 30s, and I’m looking into their eyes, and I don’t know what to say.
“I couldn’t say, ‘Everybody, let’s pinky-promise that you’re beautiful!’ It doesn’t work that way, and I know it because I’m dealing with the same s**t they’re dealing with.
“What I wanted to say is that life is so stressful, and I get the desire to just escape it. But I wasn’t figuring my own stuff out, so I felt I had no wisdom to share. And so maybe I thought everybody out there was thinking, ‘This is a waste of time.’ ”
Selena bounced into the showbiz world aged seven, when she bagged a part in kids’ show Barney & Friends. Disney soon came calling, and she won a role in Hannah Montana at 12.
The next year she moved from her home state Texas to Los Angeles with her mother Mandy Teefey and her stepfather Brian.
She later described Disney as a “very controlled machine”. In 2012, aged 19, she left Disney to pursue a solo singing career, but struggled to find her own identity.
Selena later said: “For a guy there’s a way to rebel that can work for you. But for a woman, that can backfire. It’s hard not to be a cliche, the child star gone wrong.
“I did respect my fans and what I had, but I was also figuring out what I was passionate about and how far I was willing to go.”
But with her ambitious mum always urging her on, Selena could see no way off the treadmill. She reflected: “My mom gave up her whole life for me. Where we’re from, you don’t really leave.
“So when I started gaining all this success, there was a guilt that came with it. I thought, do I deserve this?”
Her stint in rehab in 2016 for anxiety and depression — taking part in therapy and giving up her mobile phone — was a revelation. She described the time as “incredible”, adding: “It was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but it was the best thing I’ve done.”
But just a few months later she was dealt another devastating blow. Lupus had damaged her kidneys and she needed a transplant. In an incredible gesture, Selena’s best friend, actress Francia Raisa, donated one of hers.
Selena said afterwards: “She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me. I am incredibly blessed.” But then this year, her health troubles flared up again.
Late last month, days after she announced she was taking a break from social media, Selena’s white blood cell count dipped to dangerously low levels in what may have been a side effect of her transplant.
She was hospitalised twice in two weeks. On her second stay late last week, Selena’s frustrations reportedly boiled over.
Sources claim that the star had “a meltdown” and “freaked out”, trying to rip IV drips out of her arm.The incident led to her being taken to a mental health facility on the US east coast. Former love Justin was spotted crying in a car after the news broke.
A source told a US magazine: “Justin will always care about Selena. It’s hard for him to hear that she isn’t doing well.”
It is thought the star is undergoing Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) — a technique to regulate emotions, which has helped her before.
She once said: “DBT has completely changed my life. I wish more people would talk about therapy. We girls, we’re taught to be almost too resilient, to be strong and sexy and cool and laid-back, the girl who’s down. We also need to feel allowed to fall apart.”
And she also craves the luxury of being allowed to be private — despite being the most-followed person on Instagram in the world.
She admitted: “As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out. It had become so consuming to me. It’s what I woke up to and went to sleep to.
“I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn’t want to see, like it was putting things in my head that I didn’t want to care about. I always end up feeling like s**t when I look at Instagram. Which is why I’m kind of under the radar, ghosting it a bit.”
Sometimes, she has even fantasised about vanishing completely.
She said: “Look, I love what I do, and I’m aware of how lucky I am. But how can I say this without sounding weird? I just really can’t wait for people to forget about me.”
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