The singer and actor said she recently stopped vaping after years of nicotine use and hopes she can remain free of the habit.
LOS ANGELES — Selena Gomez says years of vaping nicotine changed her voice, telling followers that quitting has been difficult and that she does not expect her voice to return to the way it once sounded.
Gomez, 34, addressed the subject in a video posted to her Instagram Stories on Oct. 18 after years of public discussion about changes in her speaking voice. The singer and “Only Murders in the Building” actor said she had vaped nicotine heavily and described nicotine as difficult to quit. She also said she had stopped vaping and was hopeful she could continue without it.
“I’m not going to be able to change my voice,” Gomez said in the video. “I vaped nicotine a lot.” She told followers that nicotine was hard to quit and discouraged people from starting to vape, saying the habit had changed the way she sounds. Gomez did not explain whether a doctor had determined that the change was permanent or provide details about any medical evaluation of her vocal cords.
Her remarks offered a new explanation for a topic Gomez had addressed previously. In December 2025, she responded to questions about her voice by saying her throat sometimes swelled internally. At the time, she did not connect the change to vaping. In her latest comments, however, Gomez directly linked her nicotine use to the change she has noticed in her voice.
Medical experts have said vaping can irritate the respiratory tract and may affect the tissues involved in producing a person’s voice. During an NBC News discussion of Gomez’s comments, medical contributor Dr. Akshay Syal said chemicals, heat and dryness from vaping can contribute to inflammation involving the vocal cords and airway. He also noted that more research is needed to determine whether voice changes caused by vaping are permanent after someone stops.
Gomez said she was pleased to have stopped vaping but acknowledged that remaining nicotine-free has been difficult. She said she hoped she could continue and described quitting as a challenging process. Her comments focused largely on her own experience rather than making a medical claim about what vaping will do to every person’s voice.
The disclosure comes after years in which Gomez has spoken publicly about other health issues. She has lupus, an autoimmune disease, and underwent a kidney transplant in 2017 after complications from the condition. She has also publicly discussed her bipolar disorder and mental health. Those conditions have previously been part of public discussion surrounding changes in her appearance and voice, although Gomez’s latest comments specifically pointed to vaping as a factor in how she now sounds.
Gomez’s comments drew broader attention because she has spent much of her career both singing and acting, making her voice a central part of her work. Along with her music career, she stars with Steve Martin and Martin Short in the television comedy “Only Murders in the Building” and is the founder of the cosmetics company Rare Beauty.
Health researchers have documented several risks associated with electronic cigarettes, including nicotine dependence and irritation of the lungs and airways. The precise long-term effects of vaping on the human voice remain an area where research is still developing. Gomez did not identify a specific diagnosis or say that a medical professional had concluded her vocal change could never improve.
For now, Gomez says she has stopped vaping and hopes to maintain that change. Her account establishes what she believes caused the difference in her voice, while the question of whether that change is medically permanent remains less certain than some headlines about her comments have suggested.
Author note: Last updated October 22, 2026.