Selena Gomez showed off her kidney transplant scar in a swimsuit snap she posted to Instagram this Thursday.
The 28-year-old pop star underwent the procedure in 2017 to treat her lupus and received the organ donation from her close friend Francia Raisa.
Posing in a sky blue one-piece this week, she stood between her hot tub and a manmade creek in her backyard and flung her arms upward, as she made a statement about body confidence, in the candid post.
‘I feel confident in who I am and what I went through’: Selena Gomez showed off her kidney transplant scar in a swimsuit snap she posted to Instagram this Thursday
‘When I got my kidney transplant, I remember it being very difficult at first showing my scar,’ she revealed in her caption.
‘I didn’t want it to be in photos, so I wore things that would cover it up. Now, more than ever, I feel confident in who I am and what I went through…and I’m proud of that,’ the Come And Get It singer announced.
She was modeling a $120 Selena One Piece swimsuit that she collaborated on with La’Mariette, whose co-founder Theresa Marie Mingus she praised in her caption.
‘T – Congratulations on what you’re doing for women, launching @lamariette whose message is just that…all bodies are beautiful,’ wrote Selena.
Side by side: She underwent the procedure in 2017 to treat her lupus and received the organ donation from her friend Francia Raisa; the duo are pictured later that year
Although she had been diagnosed with lupus years before she went public with her illness, she made the announcement to Billboard in 2015.
She revealed that she had ‘been through chemotherapy’ to try and treat the illness, resulting in her much-publicized stay at the Arizona rehab Meadows.
Three years ago she announced her kidney transplant on Instagram with a sweet photo of her and Francia holding hands as they lay in adjacent hospital beds.
Selena gushed that ‘there aren’t words to describe how I can possibly thank my beautiful friend Francia Raisa. She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me. I am incredibly blessed. I love you so much sis.’
‘She gave me the ultimate gift’: She announced her kidney transplant on Instagram with a sweet photo of her and Francia holding hands as they lay in adjacent hospital beds
Shortly thereafter Francia told Us Weekly about the aftereffects of the procedure, saying: ‘It’s harder as the donor because we are losing something our body didn’t need to lose, so trying to recover from that, and she’s gaining something her body needed. So she’s up and at it immediately and I had a hard time.’
The experience, she said, ‘was very humbling. I couldn’t take a shower by myself, I had to have someone help me because I couldn’t move.’
She said: ‘I’m a very, very active person, so the fact that my doctor said I couldn’t move for two months. Two months, I couldn’t do anything active.’
Francia added: ‘All I could do was walk. That was very hard for me and I have a dog and every day the thing I look forward to is drinking my coffee and walking and I couldn’t do that. It was really really hard.’
Initial scar: Selena gushed that ‘there aren’t words to describe how I can possibly thank my beautiful friend Francia Raisa’
