“Listen, we experience it with every hero in the world. I’m sure there was bad stuff written about Martin Luther King after he passed. People are always just gonna look for something negative,” the ‘How I Met Your Father’ actress says of the hate she received after donating her kidney to Gomez.
Francia Raisa‘s biggest act of kindness may have been giving longtime friend Selena Gomez a kidney, but it’s come with its fair share of backlash.
On the latest episode of The Art of Kindness podcast, Raisa opened up about her decision to donate her kidney to the Only Murders in the Building star in 2017 following her battle with lupus, and the reaction that followed.
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Francia Raisa Says Past Drama with Selena Gomez Had ‘Nothing to Do’ with Kidney Donation
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“Besides donating a kidney, what?,” Raisa quipped when asked by host, Robert Peterpaul, what she considered to be her biggest act of kindness. “It was definitely a personal choice. It was definitely just an act of kindness no matter what the rumors are.”
Gomez was actually the one that revealed that Raisa donated one of her kidneys to her in an emotional post that shows them lying in hospital beds following the surgery.
“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,” Gomez said on Instagram at the time.
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The pair even sat down on the Today show to discuss their experience in an emotional interview where Gomez reflected on how Raisa’s donation saved her life.
Gomez also spoke about her decision to be candid about the kidney transplant, her illness and mental health in her My Mind & Me documentary, telling Entertainment Tonight, “In a weird way, I feel like it is a time capsule of things — a period of my life where I look back, and I actually feel bad for that version of myself.”
She added, “I think that it was good for me to see how I was responding to my body, the way that I was acting and the way it was so irrational in moments, and I think it was really healing for me to see that and get it out.”
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Selena Gomez Talks Hitting ‘Rock Bottom’ Before Managing Mental Health: ‘I’m In a Much Better Place Now’
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Even though Raisa’s choice to donate her kidney to Gomez came from a good place, in the years since, the How I Met Your Father actress said there’s been a lot negativity surrounding her decision, amid rumors that the pair had a falling out.
“Listen, we experience it with every hero in the world. I’m sure there was bad stuff written about Martin Luther King after he passed. People are always just gonna look for something negative,” she said on the podcast.
“I put myself in a position where people are interested in my personal life — I wish that wasn’t so crazy. Sometimes people need a distraction from their own life. If I’m that distraction, I guess I just have to be grateful that people care about my feelings. Yeah, it was something I just did because I really felt called to do it and I’ve been blessed since.”
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Francia Raisa on Rekindling Friendship with Selena Gomez Six Years After Falling Out
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She continued, “My first audition was two weeks after surgery, [it] was Grown-ish and I booked it. I’ve just been on my own journey ever since. It definitely did a lot for me. My favorite thing is I’m able to talk to other donors.”
While rumors of a feud between Raisa and Gomez began swirling two years ago after Gomez named Taylor Swift as a “friend in the industry” and not Raisa during a Rolling Stone interview, Â the pair have since reconciled their friendship, with the “Love On” singer taking to social media to celebrate Raisa’s birthday.
“She and I are still getting to know each other again,” Raisa told USA Today in December about repairing their friendship.
While they hadn’t spoken in almost six years before coming together again, Raisa said  she didn’t regret her decision to give Gomez a kidney.
“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,” she added.
