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A Sports Illustrated feature story reveals that Rocky Johnson, the late father of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, fathered five additional children in Canada prior to the legendary wrestler and A-list actor's birth.
Sports Illustrated's Greg Oliver chronicled the story of five strangers who formed a familial bond after finding each other and their uncle, Rocky's brother Ricky Johnson, despite having never met their biological father in-person.
Rocky Johnson, who was born Wayde Bowles in Amherst, Canada, was previously married to Una Sparks with two children, Wanda (born in 1964) and Curtis (May 1966) Bowles, prior to his wrestling career taking off internationally and his relationship with Dwayne Johnson's mother, Ata Maivia, the daughter of legendary wrestler High Chief Peter Maiva and promoter Lia Maivia.
However, Johnson fathered his first child, Paula Parsons, in 1964 and four others -- Trevor Edwards (born 1967), Lisa Purves (born 1968), Adrian Bowles (born 1970) and Aaron Fowler (born 1970), prior to Dwayne's birth in May 1972, which was previously unknown to the public prior to the Sports Illustrated story being published on Thursday (June 30).
DNA tests confirmed the siblings were related to one another and Ricky after a series of events led to them meeting in recent years.
Dwayne Johnson, who has never met his half-siblings other than Wanda and Curtis Bowles, has publicly acknowledged his "incredibly complicated" relationship with his late father, which was documented in a 2021 Vanity Fair interview in which he said he argued with Rocky over how his autobiography Soulman, which Vanity Fair wrote, “aggrandized his father at the expense of the truth," as well as the NBC series Young Rock, which portrays Johnson as both a loving father and husband, but also acknowledges his shortcomings while balancing his professional wrestling career.
“They touch on the positive and negative side of growing up with Rocky as a father,” Edwards said via Sports Illustrated. “I respect that they didn’t try to sugarcoat it.”
The siblings acknowledged that their resentment is with their biological father and not their famous half-brother.
“Dwayne has nothing to do with the decisions that his dad made; he doesn't even know who we are," Trevor Bowles said.
“Dwayne doesn’t owe us anything," added Purves, a filmmaker who said she reached out to Dwayne Johnson's team regarding her documentary, Just Call Me Lisa, which is in post production, but received no answer.
“There are millions of other kids just like me,” Purves added, “and I want to [tell] people: Face your shame. If one person heals from watching this documentary, then putting my pain in public is worth it.”
You can read Oliver's full story on SI.com here.