Selena Gomez Says Cooking With Boyfriend Benny Blanco 'Really Grounds' Her

Selena Gomez has shared that cooking with her boyfriend Benny Blanco is one of their favorite pastimes. On Wednesday, Sept 4, during a virtual event hosted by Instagram for her brand Rare Beauty, Gomez, 32, spoke about her relationship with the 36-year-old music producer. In a Q&A session, she reflected on the advice she would give her younger self. “Don’t be so hard on myself,” Gomez said. “I was very hard on myself. If the teacher scolded me for talking too much, I’d go home and think about it all day. If I had a crush on a boy and he asked another girl out in front of me, I’d be a wreck forever,” she added.

“I was too hard on myself. I didn’t think I was enough, or sometimes I didn’t feel like I fit in. But in the end, you’re exactly who you’re meant to be,” the singer continued, reports People.

When asked how she deals with those feelings now, Gomez said, “It may sound a little silly, but just taking a step back and looking around, you know?” “At home, for instance, I’ll go outside, put my feet in the grass, listen to some music, and find things that help me feel grounded,” she added.

She reportedly also talked about how her relationship with Benny Blanco has influenced her in small but meaningful ways.

“I love fresh foods and stuff. I’m getting into it more because of my boyfriend. Just being in the garden, picking things that I can cook with. It might seem small or silly, but as you get older, you realize that it’s OK to enjoy simple things,” Gomez said.

She further revealed that one of the couple’s favourite activities is cooking together, specifically making tamales — a process they enjoy sharing with friends.

“Right now, we’re making a bunch of tamales, which is one of my favourites, and we’re planning to give them to random friends,” she said. “It’s a long process, but it’s fun. We’ll listen to music, have a drink, make tamales, and deliver them to our friends.”

Food has been a big part of their relationship since the beginning. In March, Blanco even launched Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends. The pair publicly confirmed their relationship in December 2023, though Gomez later revealed that they had been together for six months before going public.