‘Challenging and difficult’: Dwayne Johnson and family test positive for Covid-19

Pro-wrestler turned Hollywood actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said in a video message posted on social media on Wednesday that he, his wife and their two young children tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks but that they all have recovered and are healthy.

Johnson (48), said in the Instagram post that he and his spouse, Lauren (35), and their daughters, Jasmine (4), and Tiana (2), caught the virus about 21/2 weeks ago from "very close family friends" whom he said had no idea how they had become infected.

“I can tell you this has been one of the most challenging and difficult things we have ever had to endure as a family, and for me personally,” he said in the video.

“And for me personally too, as well. And I’ve gone through some doozies in the past. I’ve got knocked about and got my ass kicked a little bit in the past with some challenges.

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“But testing positive for Covid-19 is much different than overcoming nasty injuries, or being evicted, or even being broke, which I have been more than a few times.”

The actor said his family, like their friends who caught coronavirus first, had been “incredibly disciplined” about adhering to safety measures to avoid the virus.

The two young girls suffered only “a little sore throat the first couple of days” and bounced back, though Johnson and his wife had “a rough go,” he said.

“But I am happy to tell you guys that we as a family are good. We are on the other end of it,” he said. “We are no longer contagious, and we are, thank God, we are healthy.”

The actor urged people to wear face masks to limit the spread of coronavirus.

“It baffles me that some people out there, including some politicians, will take this idea of wearing masks and make it a political agenda,” he said. “It is a fact and it’s the right thing to do, and it is the responsible thing to do.”

Johnson, who shot to fame in the World Wrestling Federation as the swaggering, boastful grappler known as The Rock, began making a transition to mainstream entertainment in the late 1990s and went on to develop a prolific screen career.

He has appeared in such feature films as The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, Baywatch and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, becoming one of the highest-paid and commercially successful actors in Hollywood. He also executive-produced and starred in the HBO series Ballers, about NFL players living in Miami.

He married Lauren Hashian, a singer-songwriter whose father was the drummer for the rock band Boston, in 2019, the year he officially announced his retirement from wrestling.

He is not the only celebrity to publicly announce a coronavirus diagnosis. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were among the first to do so, while others including Idris Elba, Bryan Cranston and Antonio Banderas have also fought the virus. – Reuters and PA