Selena Gomez Emotionally Admits Biggest Career Mistake From Disney Days

Selena Gomez is looking back on her star-making role on The Wizards of Waverly Place after over a decade. From 2007 to 2012, the Disney Channel series followed Alex Russo (played by Gomez), a New York teen who had magical powers and was training with her brothers Justin (David Henrie) and Max (Jake T. Austin) in order to become a wizard. During the show’s four-season run, it received numerous awards and nominations. The show was also the winner of three Emmy awards. For an in-depth chat, Gomez got to reconnect with two of her Wizards of Waverly Place cast mates, David DeLuise and Jennifer Stone, this week. In the most recent episode of DeLuise and Stone’s podcast, Wizards of Waverly Pod, on Monday, the actor and singer was asked what the “biggest mistake” she made in her career was.

“Probably not staying in touch with you guys,” Gomez said. “I think I slowly became kind of shamed. I felt ashamed of the decisions that I made.” In addition, she said, “I didn’t want you guys to see me in the state that I was in because, A, you would have told me the truth, which terrifies me, and B, I didn’t want to let you down.” She did not elaborate on what she had been ashamed of. The documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me was released last year as an Apple TV+ program and explores the singer’s relationship with mental health following her diagnosis of lupus and bipolar disorder.

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Gomez’s admission apparently resonated with DeLuise, who played her character’s father, Jerry Russo, on Wizards of Waverly Place. “I appreciate your saying that,” he said. “To be perfectly blunt, there have been times when I’m like: ‘Did we stop being friends because I didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear?’” Although she and her cast mates may have drifted apart, Gomez nonetheless said she was “really grateful and happy” for her time on the show, noting: “I think I felt safe, and that’s a really hard thing for me to feel. “You guys genuinely loved me, and that’s all I could have asked for,” she added. After the Wizards of Waverly Pod episode concluded, Gomez made plans to meet up with DeLuise and Stone upon returning to Los Angeles. She is currently in New York, filming season three of Only Murders in the Building with Steve Martin and Martin Short.