By Deirdre Simonds and Sean O’grady For Mailonline
22:53 18 March 2023, updated 23.06 18 March 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 giant.
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 after footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 562 followers, and Lionel Messi, who has 442 million people watching his every move.
The feat comes less than a month after surpassing Jenner as the most followed woman on the social media platform.
The Wolves singer was previously the most followed woman on the site back in 2019, before Ariana Grande beat her to the post, with Kylie, 25, later overtaking them.
Many of the singer’s fans have rejoiced at the news, proclaiming Selena the “queen of Instagram”.
On Twitter, one user wrote: ‘Selena Gomez is once again the most followed woman on Instagram. The Queen is back!’
Another user said: ‘She’s back on her throne. Selena, the queen of Instagram!’ while a third called her: ‘The OG Queen of Instagram’.
A fourth said: ‘Selena Gomez is now the most followed female artist on Instagram and Tiktok. A global queen.’
Although she boasts millions of followers, Selena recently told Vanity Fair that she has stepped back from social media and only has the TikTok app on her phone.
The star added that she was hurt by ‘malicious’ comments from trolls and also saw excessive use of the platforms as a ‘waste of time’.
She said: ‘People can call me ugly or stupid and I say whatever. But these people get detailed. They write paragraphs that are so specific and mean. I wanted to cry constantly. I had constant anxiety…I couldn’t do it anymore. It was a waste of my time.’
‘There are wonderful things about social media – connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories.
‘But usually it’s filtered through (for me now). I made a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As for comments, my team will put together a few things that are encouraging.’
She has now created a ‘system’ where she gets an assistant to act as a barrier between her and the comments by writing on her behalf.
‘I never got the chance to go to an actual high school. The world was my high school for the longest time and I started being inundated with information that I didn’t want,’ she explained.
‘I was going through a tough time in a breakup and I didn’t want to see any of the (feedback) – not necessarily about the relationship, but my opinions versus (someone) else. There would be thousands of really cute comments, but my mind goes straight to the evil one.
‘The only thing I have on my phone is TikTok because I think it’s a little less hostile. There are wonderful things about social media – connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories.
‘But usually it’s filtered through (for me now). I made a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As for comments, my team will put together a few things that are encouraging.’