Selena Gomez knows that it's nice to have a friend.
During a recent visit to her husband Benny Blanco's Friends Keep Secrets podcast, the Only Murders in the Building actress confirmed longstanding fan speculation that she is, in fact, the inspiration for a song on Taylor Swift’s Evermore.
"'Dorothea' is about me," Gomez said. "I feel like a lot of huge moments that were self-defining — from relationships to family to love to hate, all of it, in between — we were figuring it out because I was 15 and she was 18. And we didn’t really know what was going on, and so we've never seen each other any differently."
She continued, “So when I listen to ['Dorothea'], I'm so impressed by how it's eloquently put."
The eighth track on Swift's second surprise secret album of 2020, "Dorothea" details a childhood friendship that begins to fade away when its titular character heads to Hollywood to become a big star.
"It's never too late / To come back to my side," Swift sings. "The stars in your eyes / Shined brighter in Tupelo / And if you're ever tired of being known for who you know / You know you'll always know me."
Swifties began to suspect that "Dorothea" was about Gomez because its lyrics contain a line about how its subject is now "selling makeup and magazines." Gomez is the founder of Rare Beauty, a vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics brand.
And, as Gomez revealed on the podcast, it's not the only song Swift has written about their decades-long friendship.
"There's this song that Taylor wrote about us and it was called 'Family,'" she said. "It was over, easily, a decade ago. Insinuating in the lyrics, without quoting, it is basically saying, 'You have these amazing dreams. You want to be in movies. In every crowd I see you.'"
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Swift also wove her own aspirations into the unreleased song's lyrics. "Then her part was, 'You believe in my stupid dreams like playing stadiums,'" Gomez recalled. "Now, when I listen to those songs, both of those things — it makes me want to cry — have happened for us."
She continued, "And that's really sweet, because back then, she was just like, 'I wrote this song about us!' And it was just our story, and it was the sweetest thing and I love it."
The pair’s bond has only gotten stronger as they’ve grown up and found love. Gomez married Blanco last September, while Swift got engaged to Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce that August.
"It's absolutely unbelievable to come from 17 years of friendship, from multiple heartbreaks and love stories and fun stories in life," Gomez noted. "We both ended up, fortunately, being engaged around the same time. And that was the coolest part."
Listen to Gomez reflect on her friendship with Swift in the podcast episode above.
