Selena Gomez said heavy nicotine vaping has permanently changed her voice and warned others that the habit “is just not worth it.”
The 34-year-old singer, actress and Rare Beauty founder posted a roughly one-minute video to her Instagram Stories on Sunday, Oct. 18. “I’m not going to be able to change my voice,” she said. “I vaped nicotine a lot.”
“Nicotine is so hard to quit, and I think I just wanted to say if you’re going through it, or if you’re even trying to vape, it’s just not worth it,” Gomez continued. “It’s so stupid. And it’s changed my voice. So if you guys don’t like listening to my voice, that’s totally understandable. I don’t mind. Just don’t listen.”
She added that she had recently stopped. “I am really excited because I stopped and I just hope I can keep it up. It’s really hard. But I know if you are going through something, you can get through it too. It sucks.”
Gomez, born Selena Marie Gomez on July 22, 1992, in Grand Prairie, Texas, rose to fame as a child actress on Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” before building a music career and later starring as Mabel Mora in the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building.” She founded the cosmetics company Rare Beauty and married music producer Benny Blanco in a private ceremony in Santa Barbara, California, in September 2025.
The comments mark a clearer explanation for vocal changes that fans have discussed for years. In a December 2025 Instagram Live, Gomez addressed questions about her voice without mentioning vaping. “Sometimes things happen. I get weird. My throat kind of swells inside sometimes. That’s all,” she said at the time.
Gomez has been open about living with lupus, an autoimmune disease diagnosed around 2013. Complications from the condition led to a kidney transplant in 2017, with the organ donated by her friend, actress Francia Raisa. Lupus flare-ups can cause inflammation around the larynx that makes the voice sound raspy or strained. Age-related deepening of the voice is also common.
Peer-reviewed research supports links between daily e-cigarette use and voice problems. A 2025 study in The Laryngoscope found that young adult electronic cigarette users reported significantly more voice and cough symptoms than non-users, along with subtle changes in laryngeal kinematics. An integrative review published in the Journal of Voice the same year concluded that e-cigarette use can inflame the epithelium and mucosa of the vocal folds, cause dryness, compromise vocal homeostasis and worsen voice quality.
Gomez has been photographed holding a vape on multiple occasions over the years, including in Rome in 2018 and more recently while preparing for outings. She did not detail how long she used nicotine or when she quit beyond saying the process has been difficult and that she hopes to maintain it.
The Instagram Story was widely shared, including by the podcast account No Jumper, which posted a clip of the video on X. Gomez has not issued further public comments on the matter as of Monday.
