Selena Gomez fans have blasted Peacock for mocking Selena Gomez’s lupus diagnosis and kidney transplant in a recent episode of the “Saved By the Bell” reboot, Bayside High students argue over Gomez’s health history, according to The Wrap.
Two teens debate who donated a kidney to the 28-year-old — Pattie Mallette, the mother of her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber or her ex-best friend, Demi Lovato when one student quips, “Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?”
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Gomez passed through the surgery in 2017 after being diagnosed with lupus, and her friend, actress Francia Raisa, thoughtfully donated her organ to keep Gomez living.
Saturday saw the star’s name and ‘RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ’ trending on Twitter, as fans weighed in defending her with many demanding that the episode be taken down.
i wonder what was going through they minds when they wrote this, did they actually think this was funny?? respect selena gomez. pic.twitter.com/wpMG2kM5zd
— ًemery (@btchlena) November 28, 2020
A Twitter user wrote how the “Saved By the Bell” jokes brought her dad “to tears,” after their grandmother passed away from lupus. “This is something that affects me a lot,”
Another Twitter user wrote, “Who in their right state of mind would even think that it was OKAY to joke about this!” posting an interview Gomez and Rasia did with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie after the operation. “Freaking disgusting and disrespectful!!”
A tweet from another account posted, “Using what selena gomez went through for entertainment is blatantly insensitive and wrong. what she went through was real and it wasn’t easy. It’s so incredibly disgusting seeing it be used as a joke for entertainment.”
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As of the time of writing this story, SurgeZirc France confirmed that 5,308 fans had signed a Change.org petition demanding for “Saved By the Bell” to be cancelled, referencing the insensitive Gomez comments.
Without wasting ado, Peacock issued a mea culpa and said it will be donating to Selena Gomez charity, “We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health. We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC,” they told The Wrap.
