The fight for the crown of "most followed woman on Instagram" has a new (old) queen. Singer and actor Selena Gomez has once again emerged the victor, beating out TV personality and businesswoman Kylie Jenner's 380 million or so followers with upward of 382 million herself. Elle reports the throne trade took place on Wednesday, citing metrics gathered by celebrity news fan account Pop Faction. Gomez had previously held the title but was dethroned in 2019 by Ariana Grande; Jenner took over the top spot early last year. It doesn't seem like Gomez is basking in her reclaimed glory, however: CNN reports that shortly after the IG development, the 30-year-old Murders in the Building star announced she's taking a breather from being online.
"I deleted this one time because I thought maybe it was too much but eh (taking a break from social)," she wrote on Instagram, posting a throwback photo of herself. She may not even have personally posted that, though. Earlier this month, Vanity Fair noted that Gomez tasks an assistant with handling her social media accounts, citing Instagram as being particularly toxic. She told the magazine that detractors would "write paragraphs that are so specific and mean" and that "I would constantly be crying. I constantly had anxiety ... I couldn't do it anymore."
She added that TikTok was the only social media app on her phone, "because I find it to be a little less hostile." In a January 2022 conversation with InStyle, Gomez said that past social media breaks she'd taken had proven beneficial. "At one point Instagram became my whole world, and it was really dangerous," she noted at the time. "Taking a break from social media was the best decision that I've ever made for my mental health. I created a system where I still don't have my passwords. And the unnecessary hate and comparisons went away once I put my phone down." (More Selena Gomez stories.)
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