Dwayne Johnson opened up – My mom tried to check out when I was 15

Dwayne keeps a lot of things to himself and that is OK. Now and then, when memories come back, celebrities open up about some painful things that happened in their life. In an Instagram post that he posted on Thursday he opened up about his mother suicide attempt. He had a “stressful” scene on his comedy show Ballers where he had to visit a grave of his friend who committed a suicide. Apparently that scene reminded him of his mother, Ata, who apparently attempted suicide herself, years ago.

The post was captioned – “Got me thinkin’ though bout how many of us have been affected by suicide of our friends, family. Struggle and pain is real. We’ve all been there on some level or another.” He continued by writing – “My mom tried to check out when I was 15. She got outta the car on Interstate 65 in Nashville and walked into oncoming traffic. Big rigs and cars swerving outta the way not to hit her. I grabbed her and pulled her back on the gravel shoulder of the road.” He also wrote that, somehow, his mother has “no recollection” of this unpleasant event, and as he wrote, and we agree, it is “probably best she doesn’t.”

We also managed to find out that Johnson’s mother actually attempted that suicide during a very difficult period that their family went through. Johnson’s father, who was as you know also a wrestler,very often had to move courtesy of his job. That took a tough tool on the family who had to relocate from California to Tennessee. Back than Johnson and his father moved first, and his mother Ata followed some time later. Dwayne also shared one more painful memory from that time “I’ll never forget it. It was probably about 1 o’clock in the afternoon. We were at a restaurant, the three of us, and they got into it. They got into a very big fight. Not physical, but just really loud arguing.”

After that unfortunate event in the restaurant his family basically split, but not in a way you all think, no. They left the restaurant in two cars – his mother and father in one, and Dwayne drove the other one. He recalled seeing his parents’ car swerving around which at the time indicate only one thing – they were still having a fight. Not long after his dad pulled over to the side of the road, and his mother instantly walked into the road on the oncoming traffic. Thanks to his composure and the protective instincts toward his mother, he managed to rescue her, but unfortunately he can’t remember what he actually said to her that moment. Out of all that Dwayne actually learned something that will stick to him his entire life. In his words – “I remember she didn’t say a thing. In that moment, one of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned was how precious life is and how in an instant, it can all go away. [It] changed me.”

Not your typical scene on our comedy #ballers, as I cracked a beer open toasting my character’s brother, William who committed suicide. Got me thinkin’ though bout how many of us have been affected by suicide of our friends, family. Struggle and pain is real. We’ve all been there on some level or another. My mom tried to check out when I was 15. She got outta the car on Interstate 65 in Nashville and walked into oncoming traffic. Big rigs and cars swerving outta the way not to hit her. I grabbed her and pulled her back on the gravel shoulder of the road. What’s crazy about that suicide attempt is to this day, she has no recollection of it whatsoever. Probably best she doesn’t. Shits of a scene to shoot – didn’t like it – but it did reminder that we always gotta do our best to really pay attention when people are in pain. Help ‘em thru it, get ‘em talkin’ about the struggle and remind ‘em that they’re not alone. We got lucky that day when I was 15 and that ain’t always the case.

A post shared by therock (@therock) on Feb 1, 2018 at 12:45am PST