Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is opening up about his final conversation with his late father, Rocky Johnson, in a raw interview that dives deep into their rocky family bond. The 53-year-old actor and former WWE superstar shared these heartfelt details with The New York Times Magazine, highlighting the pain and love that defined their relationship.
Their last big clash happened in 2019 over Rocky’s memoir, “Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story.” Johnson discovered the book falsely quoted him as writing the foreword and gave his dad too much credit for his own wrestling and Hollywood success. “It hurts,” Johnson said. “It just completely crossed the line. It goes back to the attention, the narcissism.” He called the rest of the book full of made-up stories, saying if the truth was blue, Rocky’s version was red. Johnson even worked to pull the memoir from bookstore shelves.
This fight echoed an even tougher one from 25 years earlier, when a young Johnson told his pro wrestler dad he wanted to follow in his footsteps. Rocky shot back, “What do you think you possibly have to offer?” Growing up, Johnson’s family bounced around a lot because of his father’s WWE road life. His parents’ marriage was stormy, with constant arguments that sometimes led them to live apart. Johnson admitted that separation brought some relief from the chaos.
One of the darkest moments came when Johnson was 15. He and his mom, Ata, got evicted from their Hawaii apartment. She begged Rocky, then living in Tennessee, to take in their son while she sorted things out and drove over from San Francisco. Rocky promised an apartment was ready. But when Johnson arrived in Nashville, his dad was gone. A stranger named Bob drove him to a motel and left him with a guy named Bruno—someone Johnson still calls a friend today.
That’s when the truth hit hard: Rocky was living with another woman. When Ata showed up after that long drive in a car her husband had bought her, she pieced it together during an awkward chat with Rocky and Bruno at the motel. “That was it. Within five minutes, it all just… collapsed,” Johnson recalled. The heartbreak was so deep that Ata walked right into freeway traffic, and a teenage Johnson pulled her back. “My heart hurts when I think about that,” he said. “The pain that my mom was driving with: ‘What is my life now?'” From then on, Johnson stepped up as the man in her life, seeing that haunted look on her face still haunts him.
Johnson learned of his father’s death in early 2020 while driving to the set of “Red Notice.” He debated heading home but remembered Rocky’s mantra: the show must go on. So, he pushed through and worked that day. At the funeral, Johnson saw a different side of his dad. Wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Triple H shared stories of Rocky as an “amazing friend” to everyone else. “Complicated husband. Complicated dad. But an awesome friend,” Johnson reflected. When asked if he felt more like a friend than a son to his father, he said no. “He wasn’t my friend either. I wish. I think that my mom was my friend.”
Today, Johnson focuses on his own family, raising three daughters: Simone, 24; Jasmine, 9; and Tiana, 7. His story sheds light on the real struggles behind the fame, offering a glimpse into the WWE legacy and the personal battles that shaped The Rock.
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