Selena Gomez says nicotine vaping changed her voice

Selena Gomez says vaping nicotine changed the sound of her voice, as she urged people struggling with the habit to try to quit.

“I vaped nicotine a lot,” the singer and actor said in an Instagram post on Sunday. She said she had recently stopped and hoped she could keep it up, adding that quitting was “really hard”. [1]

Gomez, 34, said nicotine had changed her voice and told people considering vaping that it was “just not worth it”. Her comments do not establish that vaping was the sole cause of the change: she has previously said her throat sometimes swells, and the BBC notes that lupus can cause inflammation around the voice box. [1]

Gomez revealed in 2015 that she had lupus, an autoimmune disease. She received a kidney transplant in 2017 from her friend Francia Raisa and later said she had experienced a lupus flare-up in 2020. The BBC reported that some social media users criticised her nicotine use in light of her kidney history, while others praised her for speaking openly about addiction. [1]