--- title: The Rock Mother's Day Instagram description: He paid tribute in a sweet Instagram post canonical: https://time.com/3853634/the-rock-mothers-day-instagram/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-11T15:13:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:19:38.079Z og:title: The Rock Is Now the Reigning Champion of Mother's Day og:description: He paid tribute in a sweet Instagram post og:url: https://time.com/3853634/the-rock-mothers-day-instagram/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Rock Is Now the Reigning Champion of Mother's Day twitter:description: He paid tribute in a sweet Instagram post twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Rock Is Now the Reigning Champion of Mother's Day by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 11, 2015 3:13 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 11, 2015 3:13 PM UTC While most mothers would agree that it’s not a competition, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson won Mother’s Day. The [_San Andreas_ actor](http://time.com/3627142/san-andreas-dwayne-johnson-trailer/), [lip sync champion](http://time.com/3770618/lip-sync-battle-the-rock-shake-it-off/) and [diet guru](http://time.com/3851632/guy-tries-the-rock-diet-plan/) posted a photo of his mother on Instagram with a caption that would warm the cockles of even the coldest heart. In the picture, The Rock’s mother, Ata Johnson, is crying, but not because she is disappointed in her son. Johnson explains in the caption that when he was 14 years old, he and his mother were evicted from their apartment in Hawaii because they couldn’t afford the $180/week rent. Now his mother, who survived a [head-on collision with a drunk driver](http://time.com/3100262/dwayne-johnson-the-rock-car-crash/) last year, is being served breakfast on a plane, all paid for by her very successful son. Not that Johnson is gloating in the photo, rather he seems truly thrilled to be able to share his success with his mother—and his big heart with the rest of the world. Now let’s just hope that his mother doesn’t kill him for posting that photo. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3853634/the-rock-mothers-day-instagram/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3853634/the-rock-mothers-day-instagram/"},"headline":"The Rock Is Now the Reigning Champion of Mother's Day","datePublished":"2015-05-11T15:13:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:19:38.079Z","description":"He paid tribute in a sweet Instagram post","url":"https://time.com/3853634/the-rock-mothers-day-instagram/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity","Mother's Day","the rock","dwayne johnson"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3853634/the-rock-mothers-day-instagram/","name":"The Rock Is Now the Reigning Champion of Mother's Day"}}]}] ```