Selena Gomez’s mom, Mandy Teefey, is clapping back at haters who criticized her relationship with her daughters.
Teefey, 50, took to Instagram on Friday, July 24, to share and quickly delete a response to a troll who accused her on a previous post of “tearing down” her daughters, Gomez, 34, and Gracie, 13, and disregarding their mental health.
“Thank you for explaining the mental health concerns for my family,” Teefey commented back to the troll, as seen in the screenshot she shared on Friday. “I haven’t spent my entire life and every dime I have made to help make change for people with mental health. I haven’t lost many, many loved ones to the end of the battle. I have fought these internal wars you speak of, I have survived my mental health struggles since I was 14 yrs old.”
Teefey continued, “You have zero right to tell me how to live my life or how to handle my war zones. No one parents perfectly, and people judge people all day on their choices so you can think I’m a bad parent. You aren’t here. You weren’t raised by me and clearly anyone who hates on another human is the one who needs to reflect.”
Mandy — who shares Selena with ex-husband Ricardo Joel Gomez and Gracie with husband Brian Teefey — added that she doesn’t “spend [her] days judging and hating people or their choices online.”
“I spend my days living, loving and fighting for people without a voice or support,” she concluded. “So don’t breakdown how I need to be as a complete stranger and assume I disregard my own child’s world. What have you done today to make someone’s day better? Ask yourself that, and if nothing, go do that. I’m not the problem. Hate is.”
Mandy continued her response in the post’s caption.
“Hate is just too far in any situation,” she wrote. “I posted this because personally, I know who I am, I know how much I love and fight for my children and that isn’t seen because I don’t need to be validated as a parental influencer.”
Mandy noted that she would never “make other people feel bad for being misunderstood.”
“But, to call me out when you can see my track record in the mental health space and knowing my family personally made sacrifices because of how hard Selena and I both fight to help people, you must step down, my friend,” she continued. “I am not going to breakdown what I have sacrificed for my efforts because I choose it. I don’t need empathy or a medal. But what I will do is say when you take time to make people feel bad for their choices and feel righteous enough to pass judgment, I will give unsolicited advice.”
Mandy told the commenter to “take that energy and do positive.”
“This is life. There is a lifeline in the other side of that photo that you decide to attack so casually,” she added. “I have built walls to protect myself, but if you do it to me, you are doing it to people I fight for, and that is not OK. Unfollow, stop the hate. Do something good with that energy. But being shitty is so much easier and selfish. Spread some support. Release that anger in your heart. It’s all noise and unproductive.”
Mandy’s since-deleted post comes days after she received backlash for her caption on a tribute to her daughters, as many fans believed she hinted at having strained relationships with them.
“My greatest accomplishments, love me or not,” she wrote alongside photos of her girls. “They are the coolest. I [hope] one day they will see what a bad ass I am and love me back as much as I love them. I’m just mom. Who never gives up when they throw me in the trash. I tell ya, mom you’re doing it wrong, maybe so, we will see. But no matter what, I got your back.”
Mandy later added at the beginning of the caption, “DISCLAIMER: Read with common sense and humor.” She also wrote in a comment to a concerned fan, “Girl. It’s [a typical] ‘mom’s not cool’ joke. Calm down. lol.”
