Dwayne Johnson says he regrets not saying ‘goodbye’ to his father and reconciling their ‘complicated’ relationship

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Dwayne Johnson, the star of 'Black Adam' opened up about his unresolved issues with his late father, Rocky 'Soulman' Johnson, who was a WWE legend.

Dwayne Johnson pays tribute to his father on Instagram

The 'Jumanji' actor shared a nostalgic video on Instagram, showing his father holding a championship belt in the ring while a young Dwayne watched from the crowd.

He captioned the post with a heartfelt message, saying he was “just delivering flowers to heaven to my old man.”

He also praised his father for being a trailblazer and a role model for men of color and men of any color in sports and entertainment.

He wrote, “My dad, along with ‘Mr USA,’ Tony Atlas made pro wrestling history by becoming the first ever Black Heavyweight Tag Team Champions for the @WWE."

 

"He came up the hard way, and trail-blazed for all of us men of color - in any sport & level of entertainment. But it was also very important to him to pave the way for all men, any color - it didn’t matter,” said Johnson.

Dwayne Johnson reveals his regret over his father’s sudden death

However, Dwayne also admitted that he had a “complicated” relationship with his father, who died at 75 in 2020.

He said he never got the chance to say goodbye to him or reconcile their differences. 

 

“My regret in this life is that I never had a chance to say goodbye to him, because he died suddenly," he added to the Instagram caption.

"I regret not reconciling our complicated father/son s*** before I lost him. Raised me with tough fatherly love and an even tougher hand. The more I live life, the more grateful I am for it,” he added. He ended his post with a farewell to his father, saying: “See you down the road, Soulman."

Dwayne Johnson learned a lesson from his father’s death

This is not the first time Dwayne has spoken about his father’s death and how it affected him.

In August, he celebrated what would have been his father’s 79th birthday and answered some questions from his fans about the “biggest lesson my dad taught me”.

“My dad taught me ‘respect is given when it’s earned, so get out there and earn it,’. Actually, he would say ‘so get your a-- out there and earn it.’ He made sure I was at the gym, even at five years old he was kicking my a-- on the wrestling mats," he said, People reported. 

He also confessed that he and his father had a fight during Christmas in 2019, and he never got to call him back before he passed away. 

“I thought about him every day, and I was conflicted because it’s my old man and I kept saying, ‘Alright, I gotta call him. I gotta call him,’ and then he passed away suddenly.

"I lost that shot. And now, of course, I gotta live with that every day because I think about him every day and I I think, ‘Damn, I should have made a different decision.’ So he inadvertently taught me that lesson," he added.