Selena Gomez Calls ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ the ‘Happiest Times’ of Her Life

Selena Gomez took a sentimental walk down memory lane on Monday (Feb. 27) as a guest on the Wizards of Waverly Place rewatch podcast.

Invited by her former co-stars Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise, the star called in to Wizards of Waverly Pod from New York City to reminisce about her time on the hit Disney Channel series that propelled her to stardom. “I can’t begin to tell you guys without making it such a little cry session, I felt like I was the happiest I’d been in my whole life,” she said of her years as Alex Russo. “And I don’t want that to be a sad thought because I’m really grateful and happy. But it was definitely the happiest times for me, and I recognize that obviously I have this different attention on me that I just didn’t have then and that was a really pure time.”

And speaking of her stratospheric, post-Disney fame, just last week Gomez earned the distinction of becoming the most-followed woman on Instagram with 382 million followers. But even overtaking Kylie Jenner, who previously held the title, came with its own whirlwind of drama after fans thought the Kylie Cosmetics mogul was subtly shading the “Rare” singer in a post. (For the record, she wasn’t, and both parties promise they’re all good.)

However, between that headache and an online dust-up caused by defending her bestie Taylor Swift over a resurfaced clip of Hailey Bieber, Gomez decided late last week to take a much-needed break from social media altogether. “This is a little silly. And I’m 30, I’m too old for this,” she declared before promising her hundreds of millions of followers she’d be back online “sooner than later.”

Watch Gomez reminisce with her Wizards of Waverly Place pals below.