Singer and actress Selena Gomez has opened up about her past struggle with nicotine vaping, revealing that the habit has permanently changed her voice. The star shared the admission in a video posted to her Instagram story on Sunday, explaining that she had recently stopped vaping and hoped to maintain her progress.
The 34-year-old performer addressed her followers directly about the difficulty of breaking the addiction, offering a blunt warning to others. Nicotine is notoriously difficult to quit, she noted, adding that the physical consequences to her vocal cords are irreversible.
“I’m not going to be able to change my voice,” Gomez said in the video. “I vaped nicotine a lot, and nicotine is so hard to quit … it’s just not worth it.”
Laughing off any criticism regarding how she sounds now, she encouraged her audience to steer clear of e-cigarettes altogether. “It’s so stupid, and it’s changed my voice. So if you guys don’t like listening to my voice, that’s totally understandable; I don’t mind. Just don’t listen to it,” she continued.
Despite the lasting impact on her voice, Gomez expressed optimism about her current health journey and extended encouragement to others facing similar struggles. “I am really excited because I stopped and I just hope I can keep it up. It’s really hard, but I know if you are going through something, you can get through it too.”
Gomez has a history of openly discussing her personal health challenges with fans. In recent years, she has been vocal about her ongoing battle with lupus, an autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissues and organs. The condition can trigger extreme fatigue, recurring fevers, and joint swelling that mimics arthritis.
Lupus is known to affect multiple bodily systems simultaneously, including the skin, joints, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. Medical treatments for the chronic illness can also introduce side effects, such as noticeable weight fluctuations. Gomez previously addressed these physical changes on a 2023 episode of the Apple TV+ series “Dear…,” explaining how specific medications caused her weight to frequently shift.
Prior to her recent disclosure regarding nicotine, Gomez had addressed questions about her vocal changes by pointing to physical symptoms related to her autoimmune condition. During an Instagram Live session in 2025, when answering a fan inquiry about her voice, she attributed the shifts to internal throat swelling linked to her health status.
