Not holding back! Selena Gomez called out the Paramount+ series The Good Fight after they aired a joke about her 2017 kidney transplant in a recent episode.
“I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently,” the Disney Channel alum, 29, shared via Twitter on Tuesday, August 3. “I hope in the next writer’s room when one of these tasteless jokes are presented it’s called out immediately and doesn’t make it on air.”
During The Good Fight episode, which premiered on the streaming service in late July, the characters were discussing cancel culture and topics that are off-limits. After Ifádansi Rashad‘s character Jim said, “Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant,” fans took to social media and stood up for the Wizards of Waverly Place alum. Twitter users slammed the show and urged people to show Selena “respect.”
“My fans always have my back. LOVE YOU,” Selena concluded her Twitter statement on Tuesday, sharing a link to an organ donor website. “If you are able to please sign up to be an organ donor.”
In June 2017, the “Lose You to Love Me” songstress revealed via Instagram that she had undergone a kidney transplant surgery after battling the autoimmune disease Lupus. Selena told fans that fellow actor and close friend Francia Raisa had given her “the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me.”
“I’m very aware some of my fans had noticed I was laying low for part of the summer and questioning why I wasn’t promoting my new music, which I was extremely proud of. So I found out I needed to get a kidney transplant due to my Lupus and was recovering,” Selena wrote on social media at the time. “It was what I needed to do for my overall health. I honestly look forward to sharing with you, soon my journey through these past several months as I have always wanted to do with you.”
As fans know, The Good Fight joke isn’t the only example of a TV show poking fun at Selena’s illness. Fans were outraged late last year after characters in an episode of Peacock’s Saved By the Bell reboot discussed who donated their kidney to the “Wolves” singer.
In the December 2020 episode, one character joked that “Justin Bieber‘s mom” was the donor while another said “it was Demi Lovato‘s kidney.” Eagle-eyed fans also spotted “Does Selena Gomez even have a kidney?” written on a wall in the background of a separate scene. Following fan backlash, the streaming service released an apology and removed the scenes from the episode.
“We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health,” the statement read, per Variety. “We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC.”
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