Hollywood star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (54) has been through a frightening experience. While showering, the actor discovered a swelling on his left testicle. Fortunately, it later turned out not to be the testicular cancer he had feared.
The spot hurt when he touched it, Johnson reveals in an interview with "Esquire" magazine. He discovered the swelling on a Friday evening. Throughout the entire weekend, he hoped it would get better, but it got worse. "I didn't even tell Lauren about it", the star reports. His wife, Lauren Hashian (41), therefore didn't know how he was doing. He didn't want to worry her before he himself knew whether there was even cause for concern.
"This thing was really painful"
"By the way, I'm fine", Johnson says. "But I didn't know that at the time and this thing was really painful." On Monday morning, he went straight to his doctor. The doctor expressed suspicion of epididymitis but didn't rule out that it could be testicular cancer.
Since Johnson had to do promotion for the latest film in the "Jumanji" series with his colleagues Kevin Hart (46) and Jack Black (56), an ultrasound examination couldn't be performed that same day. Johnson had to "live with not knowing for 24 hours - and I had to be in good spirits all day, cracking jokes and giving speeches", he recalls.
"A day without pain is like a day without sunshine"
Johnson generally has no problem with pain, quite the contrary. In June 2024, he showed his followers on Instagram an injury to his right elbow that he sustained while filming his movie "The Smashing Machine". "It looks like I have a cantaloupe in the lower part of my elbow. I got beat up pretty good in our scenes today. And there could be some soft tissue damage", he reported.
Johnson, who became known as a professional wrestler, also recalled advice from his late father Rocky Johnson (1944-2020), who was also a wrestler: "He always said: 'A day without pain is like a day without sunshine, boy'."
