Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The Rock’s rolling in it
HAD A £215M SUCCESS STORY
If dreams don’t come true, it’s often best thing that’s happened DWAYNE ON GOING FROM FAILURE TO A FORTUNE
films and is best known for The Scorpion King and for playing Luke Hobbs in the Fast and the Furious movie franchise.
In 2017, he starred in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle which took $962million at the box office. A year later, it was revealed Dwayne had become the highest paid actor ever to grace the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. And while his professional life has flourished, with money pouring in from movies and merchandising, so has his personal life. Dwayne married businesswoman Dany Garcia in 1997 and they had they had one child, Simone Alexandra, together. She has now announced, at the age of 18, that she wants to follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a WWE wrestler.
Dwayne said: “She’s so smart, we’re all so proud of her.”
He and Dany split amicably in 2007 after he met singer Lauren Hashian, 34, while filming The Game Plan.
They went on to have daughter Jasmine in 2015 and another girl, Tiani Gia, in 2018. The couple married last year.
Dwayne is a proud father but his own upbringing was not always plain sailing.
Even before getting the boot from his football team, he had been plagued by depression from the age of 15 when his mum Ata tried to commit suicide. In 2018, he said: “She got out of the car on the Interstate 65 in Nashville and walked into oncoming traffic. Big rigs and cars swerving out of the way not to hit her. I grabbed her and pulled her back on the gravel shoulder.
“What’s crazy about that suicide attempt is to this day, she has no recollection of it. Probably best she doesn’t.
“I reached a point where I didn’t want to do a thing or go anywhere. I was crying constantly.
“We both healed but we’ve always got to pay attention when other people are in pain.
“We have to remind them they are not alone.”