Actor Dwayne Johnson has opened up about how his 2007 divorce from ex-wife Dany Garcia affected his mental health and influenced his choice of acting roles, as reported by E! News.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, Johnson reflected on the emotional challenges he faced following the end of his 16-year marriage, particularly when it came to co-parenting their daughter, Simone, now 24.
"When you get married, as a few of you may know, you sign up for the long haul, but then it doesn't always work out like that," Johnson said. "And then it rocks you, like it rocked me. We had a baby, and I asked myself what kind of father I was going to be."
He admitted that the period led to struggles with depression, which motivated him to take on lighter, family-oriented roles in films such as The Game Plan and Tooth Fairy. "I was trying to figure my stuff out, and that was the only thing that I really wanted to do artistically," Johnson shared. "I didn't want anything that was going to challenge me to rip my guts out; I wanted stuff that had a happy ending."
Despite the difficulties, Johnson said he truly enjoyed working on those films, adding that he felt he had manifested them during a time when he needed positivity and healing.
While the divorce was painful, Johnson and Garcia went on to maintain a positive co-parenting relationship and built a successful professional partnership through their production company, Seven Bucks Productions. The two have since continued to collaborate on several major film and television projects, proving that mutual respect and shared goals can lead to long-term success beyond marriage.
