Los Angeles, Oct 1 (IANS): Singer-actress Selena Gomez, who has attained the billionaire status courtesy her cosmetics company, says she finds it "distasteful" to discuss money.

She told 'Entertainment Tonight': "I'm very grateful. I personally think it’s distasteful to talk about money. But I really am giving all the credit to the people who buy the products. They’re the ones that made this dream of mine come true. So I’m really, really honored and just happy."

Gomez grew up in Grand Prairie, Texas with a single mother in what she has called a "really rough neighbourhood" and previously recalled running out of money for basic amenities whilst her mom struggled to make ends meet, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

She said: "I can remember about seven times when our car got stuck on the highway because we’d run out of gas money. My mom gave up everything for me and had three jobs. I remember always being reminded that people had less than we did, and we didn’t have much.

"But I felt like we did because my mom was always doing a hundred million things just to make me happy, and we volunteered at soup kitchens on Thanksgiving."

After starting her career on “Barney and Friends” in the early 2000s, Gomez guest-starred on the shows “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and in a couple of episodes of “Hannah Montana” starring Miley Cyrus before she got her her own show in the form of “Wizards of Waverly Place” in 2007.

For that, she is thought to have earned $30,000 per episode over the course of four seasons and became one of the highest-paid child stars in the process. The years after the series ended saw her net worth skyrocket into the tens of millions as she launched a successful pop career with a string of sold-out tours.

Gomez is actually worth an eye-watering $1.3 billion, according to Bloomberg, which has included the singer on its Billionaires Index for the very first time.