$800M Dwayne Johnson Shares Painful Memories of Father Rocky’s Homeless Struggles

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has never shied away from talking about his rocky relationship with his father, wrestling icon Rocky Johnson. That relationship came into sharper focus recently during the promotions for his upcoming movie The Smashing Machine, when Johnson opened up about the guy who raised him with what he calls “tough love.”

Rocky Johnson’s influence was  undeniable, both as a mentor in ‘The Rock’s wrestling career and as a father whose strictness often bordered on brutality. But, according to the Hollywood icon, that intensity had roots buried deep in hardship.

Dwayne Johnson addresses his father’s homeless status and how it shaped him

Rocky Johnson’s life changed dramatically at age 13. After a painful family breakup one Christmas in Amherst, Nova Scotia, he found himself alone, navigating the Canadian winter without a home or safety net. Forced to grow up overnight, he relied on grit and instinct, qualities that would ultimately characterize both his wrestling persona and his uncompromising approach to fatherhood.

Dwayne Johnson believes that his father’s early struggles explain both the strength and the limits of his father’s capacity for love. “I don’t think my dad was an inspiration in terms of his tenderness. It wasn’t really my dad,” Johnson told the press at the Venice Film Festival. “He was homeless by the time he was 13. So, his capacity for love was very limited, and that’s the man that raised me. Tough love.”

‘The Rock’ has often recalled his father’s brutal training tactics, which included forcing him to push through exhaustion or telling him to “cry to your mother” if he couldn’t handle the grind. Johnson despised it at first, but with time, he realized it was his father’s way of preparing him for a world that rarely offered kindness.

That tension defined their public relationship. Fans of both men witnessed a decades-long cycle of admiration, hatred, and reconciliation. Rocky might be tough and critical, especially in public, but Dwayne Johnson never denied the lessons instilled in him that helped him create his $800 million net worth. “I hated it then, but I embrace it now. Made a man outta me,” he once admitted.

Even in interviews and shows like Young Rock, the portrayal of Rocky was complicated: part hero, part hard taskmaster. But while many would’ve expected that in the final days of his life, the father-son duo might’ve finally buried the hatchet and made peace with the past, that unfortunately was not the truth. In fact, it became the biggest regret in the future WWE Hall of Famer’s life.

‘The Rock’s honest confession about his biggest mistake

For all the toughness that shaped their bond, it was ironic that their relationship ended not with fists or silence, but with words on a page. On Christmas Eve 2019, Dwayne and Rocky Johnson fought over Rocky’s autobiography, Soulman, which the Rock had encouraged him to write with honesty and love. Instead, what the Hollywood star found felt like betrayal: stories twisted into mistruths, a fake foreword credited to him, and even linking his success to his father.

The phone call that followed became the most explosive fight they’d ever had, and it would also be their last. Just weeks later, Rocky was gone. The weight of that moment has never left ‘The Rock’. He admitted that his biggest regret is not the lies in the book or the fight itself, but rather the silence that followed. “Man, I just wish that I could hug him one more time and kiss him on the cheek and look him in the eyes and say, ‘We’re good,'” he wrote on his social media.

When death took away the opportunity, all of the anger and despair turned into something simpler: the realization that none of it mattered anymore. Six days after Rocky’s death, Johnson stood on a podium, trying to honor the man who had built and broken him. He warned others not to repeat his mistake: “If you’ve got your old man around, get uncomfortable, and pull him aside and say, ‘Let’s do our best to kind of squash this.'”

For him, the dispute over the book meant wasted time, a wall that never should’ve stood between them. In reflecting on it now, ‘The Rock’ carries both appreciation and regret. Gratitude for the harsh lessons his father taught him – discipline, work ethic, and resilience – and grief for the love that was always present but sometimes hidden under pride and conflict. As he later stated, it wasn’t until Rocky left that he completely understood: even within his father’s limits, the love was real, and it had been given with everything he had.