BORN into poverty to a teenage mum, Selena Gomez remembers times when their car ran out of petrol on the motorway as they could not afford fuel.
Now the 32-year-old Disney actress, singer and mental health advocate is one of the richest people in the world — even topping bestie Taylor Swift’s fortune.
The Bloomberg billionaire rich list puts her worth at $1.3billion, while she is the most followed woman on Instagram with 424million fans — and only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (639million) and Lionel Messi (504million) overall.
It is a long way from her humble roots in a “really rough neigh-bourhood” of Grand Prairie, Texas, where mum Mandy Teefey was just 16 when she gave birth to her.
“I can remember about seven times when our car got stuck on the highway because we’d run out of gas money,” she once said.
“My mom gave up everything for me and had three jobs. I remember always being reminded that people had less than we did, and we didn’t have much.
“But I felt like we did because my mom was always doing a hundred million things just to make me happy, and we volunteered at soup kitchens on Thanksgiving.”
Yet according to Bloomberg, her net worth now is just ahead of pop superstar Taylor, who was pegged at $1.1billion by Forbes.
Even more astonishing is that Selena has achieved all this while battling lupus — a disease where the immune system attacks its own tissues — and facing other adversities, including a kidney transplant, being diagnosed as bipolar and having a messy break-up with Justin Bieber.
Cracks started to show
Selena is a triple threat — she acts, sings and dances.
She has graced the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue, and landed the front of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies for her brand Rare Beauty.
Despite being best known for her acting and singing, it is her business acumen that has helped her fortune soar.
She’s a multifaceted business-woman with diverse income streams contributing to her impressive net worth
Stacy Jones
“Selena is not just a popstar,” Stacy Jones, of LA branding agency Hollywood Branded, told Bloomberg.
“She’s a multifaceted business-woman with diverse income streams contributing to her impressive net worth.”
Cruelty-free brand Rare Beauty, which launched in 2020, has brought in 80 per of the cash. It is now worth an estimated $2billion, with Selena holding a $1billion stake.
And in 2021 she announced mental health start-up Wondermind with her mother, which attracted backing from investors such as tennis star Serena Williams, boosting its worth to $100million.
Thanks to all her followers — 100million more than reality queen Kim Kardashian — Selena is able to rake in tens of millions of dollars from endorsements, including with Louis Vuitton and Puma.
Some experts suggest she makes $1.7million per social media post.
Her pop career has seen her release seven albums and 44 singles (half of which are platinum or gold and including five UK Top Ten hits) and receive two Grammy nominations.
And she takes home $6million per season of Disney+ comedy whodunnit Only Murders In The Building, in which she stars alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short.
Her career began in 2002 playing Gianna opposite a big purple dinosaur in Disney’s Barney And Friends.
While some celebrities might be red-faced about such a start, Selena still loves her time on Barney.
She said: “I learned everything from that show, so it’s such a wonderful memory to me. A lot of people would be embarrassed to say they were on Barney but I embrace the fact and I had such a wonderful time doing it.”
This was followed in 2007 by a recurring role in Hannah Montana as Mikayla Skeech.
She went on to win the lead and gain legions of fans in Disney’s Wizards Of Waverly Place.
And next month Selena will be returning as executive producer and guest star for the Disney+ reboot named Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.
The sequel series will premiere on the network on October 29.
Teen musical comedy Another Cinderella Story in 2008 gave Selena her first hit single, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.
Aged 16, she signed with Hollywood records and formed her own production company, July Moon.
It was not long before Selena released her successful first album Stars Dance in 2013, but a year later the cracks started to show.
She fired her mum and stepdad Brian Teefey as her managers. They only found out when they read about it online.
Mum Mandy later said they were “shocked” but claimed the move came as a relief, adding: “We lost family time because the only time we saw her, we talked business. It was no longer fun for any of us.”
At the time, Selena was in a high-profile, three-year, on-off relationship with popstar Justin Bieber before he started bouncing between her and model Hailey Baldwin, niece of actor Alec Baldwin.
Justin went on to marry Hailey in 2018 and the couple recently welcomed their first child.
Hailey denied there was a crossover between her and Selena, saying: “I can say, period, point blank, I was never with him when he was in a relationship with anybody. That’s the end of it.”
But the heartache gave Selena her first US No1 song, Lose You To Love Me, in 2020, which she wrote about the break-up.
Subsequent relationships with singer Nick Jonas, One Direction’s Niall Horan, actor Orlando Bloom and musician The Weeknd failed to take off in a serious way.
She is currently dating music producer Benny Blanco, 36, calling him “her light” — and the pair have not ruled out marriage.
But finding her happy place has taken years of hard graft and heartache.
I was going through a really tough break-up, and then I was left with the question of my career and where am I gonna go and what’s gonna happen
Selena
Behind the scenes, Selena was battling kidney problems brought on by lupus, which she was diagnosed with when she was 16.
In 2017, fans were shocked when the singer announced she’d had a kidney transplant, donated from her best friend Francia Raisa, which she called the “ultimate gift”.
‘Dealing with her lupus’
She has since gone on to advocate for lupus sufferers by being vocal about her condition.
Selena said: “I was going through a really tough break-up, and then I was left with the question of my career and where am I gonna go and what’s gonna happen.
“It was all of these different things I was feeling. Then my medical stuff kind of kicked in.
“I was dealing with my lupus and I was dealing with some kidney problems. It was actually really hard.”
There was more trauma to follow when Selena was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, characterised by extreme mood swings.
She suffered what she described as a “psychotic break” that landed her in a psychiatric hospital in 2018.
In 2020, she opened up to Miley Cyrus on her Instagram show, saying: “After years of going through lots of different things, I realised I was bipolar, so when I got to know more information, it actually helped me.”
She donates one per cent of all sales of her cosmetic line to the Rare Impact Fund, which offers access to mental health for young people.
Today, Selena appears to be very much in love with Benny, who she started dating in summer last year.
They had known each other for years, having collaborated on her 2015 hit Same Old Love and 2019 song I Can’t Get Enough, with J. Balvin and Tainy.
She told Vanity Fair: “I’ve never been loved this way.
“He’s just been a light. A complete light in my life. He’s my best friend. I love telling him everything.”
I’m excited about what that journey will look like, but it’ll look a little different
Selena
Last week she revealed that her medical issues meant she can’t carry children, saying, “it would put my life and the baby’s in jeopardy”.
It is believed she is referring to her lupus.
And she said she was not ruling out adoption because her mum was adopted as a baby.
Selena said: “I find it a blessing that there are wonderful people willing to do surrogacy or adoption.
“I’m excited about what that journey will look like, but it’ll look a little different.
“At the end of the day, I don’t care. It’ll be mine. It will be my baby.”
With her millions, massive ambition and positive attitude, it seems nothing can stop her.
6 OTHER BILLION DOLLAR WOMEN
FRANCOISE BETTENCOURT MEYERS
THE richest woman in the world, L’Oreal heiress Francoise, 71, is the granddaughter of the company’s founder, Eugene Schueller.
MACKENZIE SCOTT
AFTER being married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for 25 years, the 54-year-old received a four per cent stake in the online retailer, which is worth $1.96tn, as part of the divorce.
OPRAH WINFREY
FIRST self-made black female billionaire in the US, Oprah, 71, became famous as a chat show host in the late 80s. She has her Oprah Winfrey TV network and an Apple TV+ deal.
KIM KARDASHIAN
ALTHOUGH she started out as a reality star on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, the 43-year-old now has two successful businesses with KKW Beauty and shapewear line Skims.
RIHANNA
NOW 36, she shot to fame in 2005 with hit Pon De Replay, but the majority of her fortune comes from her fashion brand Savage x Fenty and cosmetics company Fenty Beauty.
TAYLOR SWIFT
POP superstar, 34, has been on her Eras World Tour since 2023 and this year became the first musician to reach billionaire status solely from songwriting and performing.