Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson took to Instagram on Friday to “set the record straight” and to deny that he made comments for an interview with The Daily Star this week, which published a story with quotes from Johnson slamming the “snowflake generation” for their propensity to take offense.
On Friday, The Daily Star published an interview where Johnson was quoted as saying that the “snowflake generation” were constantly “looking for a reason to be offended,” and that this attitude was actually pushing humanity “backward” rather than forward.
However, the 46-year-old former wrestler uploaded an Instagram video on Friday claiming the interview “never happened.” The Star to retracted the story.
“I can’t believe I have to do this again and set the record straight on something, but I’m happy to do it,” he said in an Instagram video Friday night. “Earlier today, online, an interview dropped with me, apparently it was with me, where I was insulting and criticizing millennials. The interview never took place, never happened, never said any of those words, completely untrue, 100% fabricated, I was quite baffled when I woke up this morning.”
“You know it’s not a real DJ [Dwayne Johnson] interview if I’m insulting a group, a generation or anyone, because that’s not me, and it’s not who I am, and it’s not what we do,” he continued.
The Daily Star, a tabloid newspaper based in London, United Kingdom, has a history of publishing inaccurate “splash” stories. In 2008, the paper was successfully sued for libel by the parents of the missing toddler Madeline McCann after running dozens of stories implicating them as involved in their daughter’s disappearance.
In 2010, the paper also ran a story claiming that Rockstar Games was planning an installment of its Grand Theft Auto series based on the crimes carried out by shooter Raul Moat, despite providing no evidence of such plans. The paper later issued an apology and was forced to pay out substantial damages for their false reporting.
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