Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a well-known celebrity worldwide as one of the most successful entertainers in Hollywood history. Johnson has walked a difficult path and pushed hard to reach this point, with his family by his side every step of the way. He has always looked to his father as an example for his career in professional wrestling. Still, in their personal lives, they had a rocky connection that they reinforced and improved upon over time until Dwayne’s father’s final moments.
For most of his childhood, his father was absent.
How we grow up can shape the person we are today. As a kid, Dwayne Johnson had never taken anything for granted but endured difficulties that a child should not experience, like when his family lost their jobs and couldn’t pay rent. It was a trying period for the Johnsons.
By the time he was 13, he had lived in 13 different states, and by the time he was 17, he had encountered several legal issues. Throughout his adolescence, Dwayne Johnson was coached by a team of legendary, rugged wrestlers, including his father, Rocky Johnson.
“The Rock” uncovers the terrible reality of growing up in a wrestling household in terms of the impact on interpersonal relationships and family dynamics. Rocky, Dwayne’s father, constantly relocated in pursuit of work, whether it be across the nation or only 5 miles away.
Little Dwayne went along with the expectation that they would eventually strike gold and be able to build long-term stability in one of those locations. This, unfortunately, didn’t happen, and it irreversibly shaped his relationship with his father.
“My dad was kicked out of his house at 13, and he was homeless, so that then shaped the man who then raised me,” admitted Dwayne. Rocky, his father, had a hard childhood that, in some way, prompted him to raise his child strictly and rigorously. Consequently, Dwayne and his father grew to have a stern and harsh relationship.
Dwayne admired his father, but their bond was complicated.
As he takes a trip down memory lane, Dwayne has consistently said that this connection with Rocky had been “complex.” His father was a man of definite rules and discipline, as is required while competing in wrestling bouts for a living, but he treated his son with the same coldness and severity that was “motivated by tough love.”
“My father was a superhero to me,” Dwayne remarked of his late father. “Sometimes, growing up around wrestlers teaches you lessons in exciting ways.”
Growing up, “The Rock” didn’t have many opportunities to make money, so he asked his father to put him through wrestling training. He had looked up to his father, but as their relationship deteriorated over time, he lost that admiration. The actor revealed, “The irony is I idolized my dad as a boy, and obviously, that idealization started to wane over the years. But the older I got, and the more experienced I got, the more I could appreciate his love for me in that limited capacity.”
