By Deirdre Simonds and Sean O’grady For Mailonline
22:53 18 Mar 2023, updated 23:06 18 Mar 2023
Selena Gomez became the first woman to reach 400 million Instagram followers on Friday, just weeks after dethroning Kylie Jenner as the social media platform.
Hot on her heels is Kylie Jenner, who has a whopping 382 million fans on the app, which she uses to share photos of her life and promote her makeup brand, Kylie Cosmetics.
Gomez, 30, is the third most followed person on Instagram behind footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 562 followers, and Lionel Messi, who has 442 million people following his every move.
The achievement comes less than a month after she surpassed Jenner as the most-followed woman on the social media platform.
The Wolves singer was previously the most followed woman on the site in 2019 before Ariana Grande beat her on the pole, with Kylie, 25, later overtaking them.
Many of the singer’s fans rejoiced at the news and proclaimed Selena “the queen of Instagram.”
One user wrote on Twitter, “Selena Gomez is once again the most followed woman on Instagram. Queen is back!’
Another user said, “She’s back on her throne. Selena, queen of Instagram!’ while a third dubbed her, “The OG queen of Instagram.”
A fourth said: ‘Selena Gomez is now the most followed female artist on Instagram and Tiktok. A world queen.’
Although she has millions of followers, Selena recently told Vanity Fair that she has moved away from social media and only has the TikTok app on her phone.
The star added that she was hurt by “vicious” comments from trolls and also saw using the platforms as a “waste of time.”
She said, “People can call me ugly or stupid and I’m like, whatever. But these people get detailed. They write paragraphs that are so specific and mean. I would cry constantly. I had constant anxiety… I couldn’t do it anymore. It was a waste of my time.’
“There are great things about social media: connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories.
‘But usually that is filtered through [for me now]. I made a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As for the comments, my team will list a few things that are encouraging.”
She has now created a “system” where she has an assistant who acts as a barrier between her and the comments by posting on her behalf.
“I never got the chance to go to a real high school. The world was my high school for a long time and I was starting to get inundated with information I didn’t want,” she explained.
“I went through a rough time during a breakup and I didn’t want to see either of them [feedback]- not necessarily about the relationship, but the opinions of me vs [someone] otherwise. There would be thousands of really nice comments, but my mind goes straight to the mean ones.
“All I have on my phone is TikTok, because I find that a little less hostile. There are great things about social media: connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories.
‘But usually that is filtered through [for me now]. I made a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As for the comments, my team will list a few things that are encouraging.”