Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has opened up about his mental health struggles following his 2007 divorce from ex-wife Dany Garcia.
Appearing on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Johnson spoke about the process he went through.
“When you guys get married, as a few of you may know, you sign up for the long haul. But then it doesn’t always work out like that,” Johnson said. “And then it rocks you like it rocked me. We had a baby, and what kind of father was I going to be?”
“At that time I was really going through it,” Johnson continued. “That was another bout of depression.”
Johnsson said that the divorce impacted the film roles he pursued.
“I was trying to figure my stuff out. And that was the only thing that I really wanted to do artistically,” he explained. “I didn’t want anything that was going to challenge me to rip my guts out, I wanted stuff that has a happy ending, and so that’s what that was.”
Acting in light-hearted films was therapeutic for Johnson.
“I loved making those movies,” Johnson said. “Also think I manifested those because I don’t think I was ready for anything other than easy, light, family films that made me feel good.”
After the painful divorce, he and Garcia are now co-parents and friends.
“While marriage wasn’t in our cards, we did realize, ‘Well, wait a second, we’re building something that’s pretty cool,’” he recalled.. “‘Marriage may not be in our cards, but building business can be.’ And that took time.”
Johnson has three daughters: Simone, Jasmine, and Tiana. Simone is his oldest, born in 2001, and is a professional wrestler known as Ava Raine. He also two younger daughters, Jasmine and Tiana, were born in 2015 and 2018 with his wife, Lauren Hashian.