Five total strangers have found out they’re actually related – and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is their half-brother.
The five half-siblings – Lisa Purves, Paula Parsons, Trevor Edwards, Adrian Bowles and Aaron Fowler – have come together after discovering their lineage and finding out they were all fathered by late WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson, who died in 2020.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, the quintet has opened up on their respective journeys through life, while none of them had a relationship with the legendary wrestler, who had Curtis and Wanda with his first wife Una, and then Dwayne with Ata Maivia.
Filmmaker Lisa, 53, first reached out to Rocky when she was 18, and again a few years later before one more call at 30, but he hung up.
She initially wanted to make a documentary about children whose parents had intentionally separated from them, and she was eventually convinced to make the film about herself.
‘I never wanted to run into Dwayne and have anyone know I was his b*stard sister,’ she said, admitting anytime she saw the Hollywood actor she was reminded that he grew up with Rocky as his dad.
Paula, 58, also tried to call Rocky – once when she was relatively young and later aged 16 – but they never met.
She explained: ‘We just want to be recognised. We sat on the back burner forever. [Rocky] was our dad just as well as Dwayne’s.’
Meanwhile, Trevor, 55, had always been told he looked like Dwayne, and in 2017 he eventually tracked down Ricky Johnson, who agreed to a DNA test which confirmed Ricky as his uncle.
While working on the original idea for her documentary, Lisa had seen Ricky in a photo online and decided to get in touch – and her uncle replied ‘right away’.
She revealed: ‘He reached out right away, and we talked and I cried, and he cried. And then he told me about Paula, Trevor and Adrian. So I reached out to all three of them. This all happened in one day. I was so excited—what a day!’
Ricky, 68, had no reservations about bringing his nephews and nieces together, and he admitted he ‘keeps reinforcing’ his love for them.
Meanwhile, the five half-siblings have also made it clear they’re not looking for ‘anything’ from Dwayne, and Paula notes they simply ‘want to be recognised’ as Rocky’s kids.
‘Dwayne has nothing to do with the decisions that his dad made; he doesn’t even know who we are,’ Adrian added, while Lisa said: ‘Dwayne doesn’t owe us anything.’
