Selena Gomez spent five years, 106 episodes and one television movie as the face of Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” franchise. When she outgrew her Disney image and became a pop star and film actor, she left many of the relationships she forged on “Waverly Place” behind. Joining former co-stars Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise on the “Wizards of Waverly Pod” podcast, Gomez admitted that one of her biggest mistakes in life was losing touch with her Disney family. Stone and DeLuise played Gomez’s best friend and father on the Disney hit, respectively.
“I think I slowly became kind of shamed. I felt ashamed of the decisions that I made,” Gomez told her former “Waverly Place” co-stars. “I didn’t want you guys to see me in the state that I was in, because A, you would have told me the truth, which terrifies me, and B, I didn’t want to let you down.”
Gomez is referring to her mental health struggles, which were exacerbated in her post-Disney years given the heightened and extreme media attention surrounding her personal life. The actor said that when she started her run on “Wizards of Waverly Place” she never expected to find a second family, as her parents divorced when she was 5 years old.
“At the beginning, I was like, ‘Well, I just don’t want a new family,’” Gomez said. “I felt like I bonded with everyone. Little did I know that I ended up with everyone I needed to be in my life. I think I felt safe, and that’s a really hard thing for me to feel. I know that you guys love me for me. There’s not really… You guys genuinely loved me, and that’s all I could have asked for, the unconditional trust and bond we had, I miss so much.”
“I appreciate you saying that, too,” Stone told Gomez. “Because to be perfectly blunt, there has been times where I’m like, ‘Did we stop being friends because I didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear?’ You know what I mean?”
“Of course, they’re all valid, and I appreciate you guys dearly,” Gomez answered back. “I love you so much in a way that I’ve never loved anybody else.”
Gomez will make more appearances on the “Wizards of Waverly Pod” podcast in the future. New episodes of the series drop on Mondays.
