Selena Gomez revealed her “biggest mistake” after she got her big break on the Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place.”
The actress reunited with her co-stars David DeLuise, who played her dad, and Jennifer Stone, who played her best friend, on their podcast “Wizards of Waverly Pod.”
One of the questions that came up from DeLuise was, “What has been your biggest mistake so far? And you can’t say a boy’s name.”
Gomez responded, “Probably not staying in touch with you guys.”
She continued, “I think I slowly became… I felt ashamed of the decisions I made, and I didn’t want you guys to see me in the state I was in. Because A, you would have told me the truth which terrifies me, and I didn’t want to let you down.”
The “Only Murders in the Building” star was only 15-years-old when she starred on the series, which ran for four season on the Disney Channel.
The actress joked that she had just come out of a “three-hour therapy session” when she appeared on the podcast and was feeling reflective.
Gomez has been open about her mental health struggles in the past. Last year, she released a documentary titled “My Mind and Me” going in depth on her struggles with depression, anxiety, and her health.
On the podcast, she also shared how much she loved her time on “Wizards of Waverly Place” before she became a fixture in tabloids and paparazzi pictures.
“I felt like I was the happiest I’d been in my whole life,” she said.
“I don’t want that to be a sad thought because I’m really grateful and happy, but it was definitely the happiest times for me. And I recognize that obviously it’s because I have this different attention on me that I just didn’t have then and that was a really pure time.”
“I was a hopeless romantic,” she said laughing. They recalled Gomez writing her initials, plus the initials of whatever boy she was dating at the time, on a piece of the set in marker, and routinely crossing out and changing them.
Ultimately, Gomez truly bonded with her fellow castmates and the crew, and considers her time on the show to be formative.
“Little did I know I ended up with everyone I needed to be in my life,” she said.
“I think I felt safe and that’s a really hard thing for me to feel. And 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.”
She added, “I tell people all the time I’ve never had that feeling that I had with the whole Wizards crew.”
