Francia Raisa, the actor who donated a kidney to Selena Gomez in 2017, has addressed speculation about their relationship after she did not appear among the publicly reported guests at Gomez’s wedding to producer Benny Blanco on 27 September. In comments recorded days before the ceremony and broadcast this week, Raisa dismissed reports that she was feuding with the singer, calling the chatter “rumors” and adding, “No one knows what’s going on, and neither she nor I are talking about it.” She also said, “I know she’s getting married, and I’m very happy for her.” The remarks were made in a Spanish-language interview with Univision’s “Primer Impacto” and circulated by entertainment outlets after the wedding.
Gomez, 33, and Blanco, 37, married in California on 27 September following a December 2024 engagement. Images released by the couple showed a small, high-profile gathering with attendees that included Taylor Swift, Steve Martin, Martin Short and Ed Sheeran, according to multiple accounts. Coverage of the event and follow-on lists of guests did not include Raisa, 37, and she has not said whether she was invited or attended. In the “Primer Impacto” clip, she limited her comments to well-wishes and did not discuss the guest list.
Raisa’s decision to speak comes against a long and closely watched backdrop. In 2017 Gomez received a kidney from Raisa after lupus-related complications; the pair discussed the transplant in interviews that year, with Gomez describing the donation as life-saving and Raisa speaking publicly about their recovery. The operation formed the basis of a widely understood bond between the two, and a narrative that has periodically resurfaced as their friendship moved through stretches of distance and reconnection.
In 2022, attention turned to the relationship again after Gomez told Rolling Stone that her “only friend in the industry really is Taylor [Swift],” a line later highlighted in other outlets. Raisa briefly reacted on social media at the time before the exchange was deleted, and the episode was treated in subsequent coverage as a flashpoint that fueled outside speculation about a rift. Neither woman provided extended public detail on their status; both later made gestures interpreted as conciliatory, including Gomez praising Raisa in posts and Raisa attending a mental-health charity event hosted by Gomez the following year.
Separate claims surfaced in 2023 when Raisa’s father, broadcaster Renán Almendárez Coello, said in a Spanish-language interview that his daughter had confronted Gomez about drinking after the transplant, characterizing the dispute as part of a broader strain. Those assertions, reported by entertainment outlets and re-aggregated internationally, were never confirmed by Gomez or Raisa, and Raisa has now said she was “not aware” of such rumors until asked. In her new remarks, she described online claims around the wedding and the transplant as “nonsense,” saying “no one knows what’s going on.”
Raisa’s new comments focus on framing the 2017 surgery as an unconditional act. “From the beginning, the doctors told me it’s a donation,” she said. “If you’re going to donate a dollar to St. Jude or somewhere else, you’re not going to call to say, ‘Hey, what are you doing with my dollar?’ It’s a donation and it’s something nice that I was able to do. I am grateful that I am alive, and I can say that I have saved a life.” She did not link the donation to any expectations about their friendship, and emphasized she was “very happy” Gomez had married.
The wedding itself was documented in detail by U.S. entertainment and lifestyle publications that reported the date, venue and aspects of the ceremony and rehearsal, including Gomez and Blanco’s choice of attire and the presence of several collaborators and longtime friends. Gomez confirmed the marriage on social media on the day of the event, posting photographs from the ceremony. In the weeks since, coverage has continued with follow-on features about the dress, music and guest experiences. None of those reports definitively listed a complete guest roster, and Raisa has not sought to clarify whether she received or declined an invitation.
In the same interview clip, Raisa linked her perspective on the transplant to a broader view of autonomy and privacy, suggesting that it was natural for relationships of long duration to have periods of distance. “Sometimes people need to spend time apart in order to grow,” she has said previously. “We trauma-bonded, which is beautiful, but also it can get rocky and tricky. People grow, relationships change.” That earlier statement, made at a 2023 benefit event, was cited again this week by outlets covering her latest remarks.
Raisa’s public profile has evolved alongside the attention on her personal ties. Known for roles in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” “Grown-ish” and “How I Met Your Father,” she has continued to work in television while managing the periodic resurgence of interest in the transplant story. Biographical listings put her birth year at 1988; she was raised in Los Angeles and is the daughter of Honduran-born radio presenter Almendárez Coello. Those basic facts are often reprised when coverage of Gomez causes her name to trend, a cycle that has repeated across several years and was revived in the days surrounding the wedding.
Gomez has maintained public gratitude for her friend and donor in past appearances and posts. In the years since the operation, she has told interviewers that the transplant reshaped her life and routine and that she remained mindful of the risks Raisa accepted. In 2023, as the two appeared to reconnect publicly, Gomez posted a birthday tribute to Raisa and thanked her at an inaugural gala for her Rare Impact Fund, where Raisa was among attendees. This week’s stories revisiting those episodes have presented them as the most recent on-record signals of warmth between the two before Gomez’s marriage.
The narrow focus of Raisa’s new statements—expressing happiness for Gomez, dismissing speculation and refusing to detail private conversations—left unanswered whether she was invited to the ceremony, whether she chose not to go, or whether schedule and other constraints played a role. Reports have noted only that prominent attendees were photographed or named by sources, while Raisa’s name has not appeared among those lists and she has declined to add details. She has, however, said, “One day, maybe we will address it,” in relation to public assumptions about the friendship.
Public interest in the wedding has been high since Gomez and Blanco announced their engagement last December, with both offering occasional glimpses into planning. Blanco discussed food for the event in interviews and the pair referenced keeping the day “pretty casual.” After the ceremony, the couple released images and short videos but did not publish an exhaustive guest list, a choice that left space for speculation to fill the gaps. Several outlets subsequently assembled partial rosters based on photographs, social posts by attendees and prior statements from friends who had said they were invited.
Raisa’s interview also contained a financial observation that drew attention online. “She has a life, and she is already a billionaire, and I am grateful that I could do that for her,” she said, in comments that were published without further context. The line appeared intended to underscore both Gomez’s success and Raisa’s stance that the transplant conferred no ongoing claim over her friend’s choices. Outlets that carried the quote added no independent valuation of Gomez’s net worth, which the singer has not publicly discussed in detail.
While some social media posts framed Raisa’s absence from wedding coverage as a slight, her latest remarks avoided that characterization. She did not criticize Gomez or any aspect of the event, offered congratulations, and reiterated that neither she nor Gomez is speaking at length about their private relationship. That approach aligned with efforts by both women in recent years to limit commentary to selective acknowledgments, allowing speculation to recede without a point-by-point rebuttal.
The transplant that binds their names continues to shape the way both are discussed in public. In 2017, Gomez described the surgery as a “life or death” moment and has credited doctors and Raisa for the outcome. Raisa has said in past interviews that recovery was difficult and that she does not regret the decision. The new interview’s emphasis on the word “donation” appeared designed to restate that the gift was not a conditional arrangement and that whatever has or has not happened in the friendship since should not be read back into the act itself.
Beyond the immediate interest around the wedding, Raisa’s statement underscores a set of themes common to long-running friendships that attract public scrutiny: the difficulty of setting boundaries when private events intersect with celebrity rituals, the tendency of partial information to drive online theories, and the reluctance of those involved to amplify rumors by litigating them in detail. Her choice to express support while declining to specify whether she was on the guest list leaves the core question unresolved and returns attention to what she made clear she wanted to emphasize—that the transplant was freely given, that she wishes Gomez well in her marriage, and that any fuller account of their friendship will come, if at all, on their timetable.
Gomez, whose wedding drew widespread coverage and messages from industry peers, has not publicly commented on Raisa’s interview. Since their apparent rapprochement in 2023, both have kept their references to each other brief. With the wedding past and promotional cycles moving on, the likelihood of fresh on-record detail may diminish unless one of them chooses to address the topic directly. For now, the record is limited to what Raisa has said this week, the photographs and posts shared by Gomez from the ceremony, and the documented history of a transplant that tied two careers and lives together in a way that remains singular even as both women maintain public lives of their own.