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A-list actor and pro wrestling legend Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson revealed how he knew about terrorist Osama Bin Laden's death before it was officially announced.
On May 1, 2011, Johnson wrote, "Just got word that will shock the world - Land of the free...home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!" on his X account just prior to then-President Barack Obama's official public announcement.
"I’ve got a friend of a friend who gave me a call. The call was like, 'Hey, this thing happened.' And I said, 'Okay, wonderful news.' I was told on the call that the president at that time [Barack Obama] was going to make his speech in 20 minutes or whatever. I said, 'Okay, great.' So 20 minutes go by, and at about the 25th minute, I tweet this. Then I get a second call, and the call is, 'Yeah, the president didn’t go on yet.' And I went, “Oh s**t,'" Johnson told the Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview published on Thursday (November 6).
Johnson appeared to be the first person to tweet about Bin Laden's death, with multiple outlets reporting it just prior to Obama's confirmation. Bin Laden, the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda, was shot and killed in Pakistan by U.S. Navy seal operatives nearly 10 years after supervising the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Johnson was one of WWE's biggest stars during the wrestling industry's boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, parlaying that success into a Hollywood career that has included starring in the several Fast & the Furious franchise films as well as Moana and Moana 2, The Scorpion King and The Smashing Machine. The wrestling legend has made multiple returns to the ring since his acting career took off and is now a member of the board of directors for TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE and the UFC.