Selena Gomez is no longer the most followed woman on Instagram

It's official: Selena Gomez is no longer the most-followed woman on Instagram.

After a long and respectable reign, she's finally been unseated by none other than Ariana Grande. The queen is dead, long live the queen! The thank u, next songstress is currently boasting an incredible 146,337,497 followers, compared to Selena, who currently holds a still-impressive 146,289,115.

It's a very close thing, but Selena's definitely lagging behind. For those of you wondering who the most-followed man is, that accolade belongs to superstar footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who overtook Selena to become the most-followed person ever on Instagram back in October. Now Ronaldo boasts more than 155 million followers. That's pretty amazing!

To be fair, it's no surprise that Selena has seen a bit of a drop in her number of followers. Back in September 2018, she took an extended hiatus from all social media platforms for the sake of her mental well-being, only returning in January 2019. She booked herself into an East Coast facility in October after reportedly being hospitalized twice during the autumn season as a result of her low white blood cell count, a complication which often arises in kidney transplant patients.

In a recent Instagram video, Selena thanked her fans for their support during her rough patch. She stated: "As much as I am grateful for the voice that social media gives each of us, I am equally grateful to be able to step back and live my life present to the moment I have been given. ‘Kindness and encouragement only for a bit! Just remember: negative comments can hurt anybody’s feelings."

In a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar, she also opened up about her relationship with Instagram and how it affects her career and personal life, stating: "I have a complex relationship with Instagram, to say the least. It has given me a voice amid all the noise of people trying to narrate my life for me and allows me to say, 'Hey, I’m gonna post this, and this is gonna take care of the 1,200 stories that people think are interesting but actually aren’t, and aren’t even true.'"

She added: "So it empowers me in that way because it’s my words and my voice and my truth. The only thing that worries me is how much value people our age place on social media. It’s an incredible platform, but in a lot of ways it’s given young people, myself included, a false representation of what’s important. So, yeah, it’s a complex relationship. Probably one of my most difficult relationships."

It's a shame that Ariana has unseated Selena, but at the end of the day, being second-best isn't such a bad thing. It actually might take a bit of pressure off her.