Selena Gomez is thriving: The singer recently released a serious contender for song of the summer “Bluest Flame”, complete with backing vocals by Brat icon Charli XCX from her new album I Said I Love You First — her first studio record since 2020. Obviously, TikTok loves it.

In her private life, she’s happily engaged and loved-up with producer Benny Blanco, who she started dating in 2023: “I’ve never been loved this way,” she said of their romance. Cute.

One teeny weeny fly in the ointment of this all-round-winning-at-life scenario came last month, though, when Forbes seemingly revoked Gomez’s billionaire status. For background, in 2024, Bloomberg had reported Gomez’s net worth to be around $1.3billion (£961.2m). But when Forbes looked at the figures in May, the number had dwindled significantly — to $700m (£517.5m) Hardly pocket change, but something had apparently gone awry. So, what went wrong?

Gomez is, inarguably, a very wealthy woman — among the wealthiest self-made female entrepreneurs, in fact. This accolade is thanks to an admirable multi hyphen career that covers Disney stardom, (Wizards of Waverly Place) numerous albums, (Stars Dance, Revival, and Rare) and her makeup line Rare Beauty, which has been valued at $1.3billion by Forbes and generated $367m (£271.3m) in revenue in 2023. Away from Rare, Gomez has also earned an estimated $90m (£66.5) from her music, tours, brand deals, and TV shows, like Disney’s hit Only Murders in the Building. Oh, and lest we forget she was in the Oscar-nominated musical crime drama Emilia Pérez. Busy woman.

Nevertheless, there appeared to be financial trouble afoot last month, when Forbes reported the mental health startup Wondermind, founded by Gomez in 2021, alongside her mother Mandy Teefey and former partner Daniela Pierson, owed tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding debt, which the company claims have since been settled. Additionally, a source alleged to MailOnline that nine of the businesses employees had been fired with just two weeks severance pay, leaving only four employees at the company.

Wondermind, described on its website as “the world’s first mental fitness ecosystem”, raised $5m (£3.6m) during its Series A (one step higher than seed) funding round in 2021, when the business was valued at $100m (£73.9m) but struggled to secure further funding. Subsequently, one former Wondermind employee told People that Teefey had revealed she and Gomez had personally invested $8m (£5.9m) to the endeavor by mid-2023.

Although Gomez is “not involved in the day-to-day operations” at Wondermind, the source claimed she has “invested millions of dollars over the years into [the business] to support her mother and their shared passion for mental health.” Regardless of this significant money injection, Forbes reported that Wondermind owes freelancers and vendors “tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars.” Yikes.

A spokesperson for Wondermind told Forbes last month that the company had experienced “growing pains” but that their financial situation had been “rectified” with changed implemented to make sure employees would get paid on time in the future and business could continue as normal. “In the coming days we will be transitioning into a new chapter for Wondermind,” the statement said, “and continuing our important work in mental fitness that helps hundreds of thousands of people.”

Gomez isn’t the only modern it-girl to have built a lucrative beauty empire. Everyone is vying to be the Elon Musk of skincare and Jeff Bezos of blush.

Former model Hailey Bieber just sold Rhode to e.l.f beauty for $1m (£739,705). Meanwhile, reality TV legend Kylie Jenner was declared by Forbes as the youngest self-made billionaire in 2019 due to the success of Kylie Cosmetics. That is, until she wasn’t. Forbes also rescinded Jenner’s billionaire status — just a year after handing it to her, claiming she had “been inflating the size and success of her business for years”.

Jenner responded to the Forbes article on X, formerly Twitter, noting that she never claimed to be a billionaire. ‘What am I even waking up to,’ she tweeted. ‘I thought this was a reputable site… all I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there ever. Period.’

In another tweet, Jenner rebuked the claim that she forged tax returns. Quoting the original Forbes article, she said,’ “Even creating tax returns that were likely forged” that’s your proof? So you just THOUGHT they were forged? Like actually what am I reading.’

Insiders claim that Jenner was humiliated by the whole ordeal, with Gomez now similarly perturbed by the ongoing commentary around her wealth. The latter is often pitted against Bieber, given their shared romantic history with singer Justin Bieber, so it can’t be easy seeing Hailey hailed as winning the beauty billionaire race while discourse whirls online about your own fortune. That said, we can’t imagine she’s too put out – new music, a thriving beauty company and a wedding on the way? She’s living better than most of us!