Francia Raisa and Selena Gomez’s reunion happened at the right time for the two stars.
“It’s still crazy to me that people were invested in our friendship,” Raisa, 35, told USA Today in an interview published on Thursday, December 28. “I don’t know why the timing happened the way it did, but I remember being in St. Tropez in June and I kept talking about her. We hadn’t spoken much in six years. Especially [in] the last year, we didn’t speak at all.”
She continued: “I don’t know why the universe decided this timing … then she reached out and said, ‘Let’s talk.’”
In July, Gomez, 31, sent the How I Met Your Father star a birthday message via Instagram before privately getting back in touch. They scheduled a reunion dinner, where they met and agreed they had “no beef, just salsa.”
“We’ve never really had beef with each other. Nothing happened, and if you ask either of us, we don’t know what happened but we needed that time apart,” Raisa told USA Today. “Then when you come back together, you’re better people. She and I are still getting to know each other again.”
Gomez and Raisa met when they were starring on Wizards of Waverly Place and The Secret Life of the American Teenager, respectively. According to Raisa, they bonded over “teenage breakups,” their Mexican American heritage and a mutual love of Mexican food. Raisa even gave her kidney to Gomez, who suffers from lupus, in 2017.
“I knew it was a match, I knew it was going to happen. No one forced me to do anything,” Raisa recalled of undergoing the surgery during an August appearance on the “Good Guys” podcast. “It came out of the genuine kindness of my heart. I have been super blessed ever since.”
Nearly five years later, fans speculated that the pair were no longer close after Gomez told Rolling Stone in November 2022 that Taylor Swift is her “only friend in the industry.” (Gomez ultimately apologized for not mentioning “every person” she knows in the article.)
Raisa told USA Today that she and Gomez are not harping on the alleged feud.
“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.’ There was just a tiff,” Raisa explained.
