The grandfather of Selena Gomez, Ricardo Gomez, has revealed that the former Disney starlet was diagnosed with the auto-immune disease lupus a few years ago, but has the condition under control. 

He explained to RadarOnline.com that members of her family recently read reports in the press that suggested she had been taking drugs, but her exhaustion and need to take a break from the spotlight was in fact down to her illness:

"She's in treatment. She's getting along pretty good. We just saw in some newspaper that she was doing drugs. I called her and said, [you] need to watch out... She was working a lot. She was exhausted. She hardly takes some time out. There was some pressure, first because it's a lot of work."

"The doctor was telling her she needs to take some time out It's just too much pressure what she's going through. It's just too much! She doesn't have a single day's break... It's getting to the point with all this pressure... that it's too much. Everyone was telling her, even her agent and the doctor, 'Selena take some time to yourself!'"

Ricardo went onto add that she also revealed to her family that she wanted to leave her career as a singer behind to focus on acting, but he thinks she might now just continue to work in both industries: "She was saying she don't want to sing no more, she just wants to be an actress... but she's going to combine it, it looks like."

Watch Gomez give a recent speech in honour of 'We Day' here: