Dwayne Johnson has shared that he already knew about Osama bin Laden’s death before then-President Barack Obama’s public announcement. The 53-year-old star revealed he heard it from a “friend of a friend.” At the time, Johnson even put out a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the al-Qaeda leader’s death before the official announcement.
Dwayne Johnson explains how he knew about Osama Bin Laden’s death early
Dwayne Johnson has admitted to knowing about Osama bin Laden’s death before the official announcement. During an interaction on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Johnson reacted to some of his old tweets and statements.
THR’s host Scott Feinberg reminded him of something he tweeted on May 2, 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!”
As soon as Johnson saw the post, he exclaimed, “Oh my God, this is not good.” However, Feinberg proceeded to ask him, “Before anyone else in the world had reported the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed, how did you know that had happened?”
Johnson confessed, “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.’”
Furthermore, Johnson added that the informant asked him to refrain from sharing the information until President Obama made an official announcement about it. Johnson waited for twenty-five minutes, assumed President Obama had finished his speech and tweeted. However, he got a second call informing him that President Obama had delayed his speech.
Johnson explained, “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,” he continued. “Then I get a second call, and the call is, ‘Yeah, the president didn’t go on yet.’ And I went, ‘Oh s***.’”
Shortly after, President Obama delivered a resounding speech to Americans informing them about bin Laden’s death. However, in spite of the comedy of errors, the Moana star’s tweet remains memorable. Notably, the 53-year-old star did not reveal his informant’s identity in the podcast.
The actor shared, “I knew the president was going to give his speech; I thought he was going to give it at a certain time, and so I thought, I think it’s appropriate that I tweet ‘I’m damn proud to be an American’ and keep it in that space without giving away too much information.”
