The Rock's Secret: Dwayne Johnson Reveals How He Knew About Osama bin Laden's Death — Before Ex-Prez Obama Told America
Johnson boasted about his insider knowledge regarding bin Laden's death.
Nov. 8 2025, Published 3:14 p.m. ET
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had some serious insider political and military connections, as the movie hunk found out about Osama bin Laden's death well before then-President Barack Obama announced it to the nation, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Johnson, 53, was passed the information about the 9/11 mastermind's May 2011 death at a house in Pakistan at the hands of an elite Navy SEAL team from a "friend of a friend." He then sensationally put the news out on Twitter before Obama's televised address.
'Wonderful News'
Johnson jumped the gun in sharing the news about bin Laden on Twitter.
"The call was like, 'Hey, this thing happened,'" Johnson revealed to The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. "And I said, ‘Okay, wonderful news.'"
“I was told on the call that the president at that time was going to make his speech in 20 minutes or whatever. I said, 'Okay, great,'" the Moana muscleman continued.
What Johnson failed to do was turn on the TV to watch Obama's live address, and instead he hopped on Twitter to share his insider info, which was a massive breach of trust.
'Proud to be an American'
Johnson shared his tweet more than an hour prior to Obama's announcement about bin Laden's death.
"So 20 minutes go by, and at about the 25th minute, I tweet this. Then I get a second call, and the call is, 'Yeah, the president didn’t go on yet.' And I went, 'Oh s---,'" Johnson confessed about his big blunder.
The Hobbs & Shaw star infamously wrote, "Just got word that will shock the world – Land of the free…home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!" on Twitter at 10:24 p.m. ET on May 1, 2011.
Obama didn't go on TV to tell the nation that Osama had finally been neutralized after a nearly 10-year manhunt until more than an hour later at 11:35 p.m. ET.
How the Tweet Aged
Johnson has a cousin who is a former Navy SEAL.
Fortunately for Johnson, Twitter, now X, wasn't nearly as big at the time as a source of major news and information as it is today.
One user in 2017 noted in the comments, "Man, it’s wild that this has <1k retweets. 2011 Twitter was weird," while a second added, "Super weird to me that this doesn’t have like 100,000 retweets."
Johnson has never divulged where he got the insider info about the vile mass murderer and al-Qaeda founder's death, although he does have a cousin who was a Navy SEAL.
'Friends in High Places'
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Johnson claimed the insiders were 'proud to let him know' about bin Laden's death.
Johnson played coy about his insider knowledge in a 2012 interview, but bragged that the people who shared the information were "proud" to tell the former WWE sensation.
"If I tell you that, I won't have to kill you, but I'll have to behead you," he joked, adding, "I got my sources."
"I got friends in high places and low places. It was a very interesting day...The individuals who were there were proud to let me know," Johnson boasted.
At the time, The Smashing Machine star was much more defiant about how comfortable he felt with his tweet, because it didn't directly reveal what he was secretly aware of.
"I knew the president was going to give his speech; I thought he was going to give it at a certain time and so I thought, I think it's appropriate that I tweet 'I'm damn proud to be an American' and keep it in that space without giving away too much information," Johnson shared.
