Dwayne Johnson is accepting the negative feedback he received after he and Oprah Winfrey requested donations for a fund to aid in the recovery after the Maui wildfires last month.
“When we first launched the fund, there was some backlash,” Johnson said in a video posted to his Instagram page on Sunday, adding, “I get it and I completely understand, and I could’ve been better. And next time I will be better.”
Johnson continued, “I recognize that money doesn’t fall out of the sky or grow on trees, and that a lot of people out there are living paycheck to paycheck. I understand it and am familiar with the situation.
“The last thing you want to hear when you are living from paycheck to paycheck is someone asking you for money, especially when the person asking you for money already has a lot of money,” he said.
What is The Maui Fund?
It’s obvious that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Oprah Winfrey didn’t anticipate any opposition when they announced a fund to aid those affected by the tragic fires in Maui. But they were criticized nonetheless since it was thought that the wealthy couple were evading their own social obligations by asking the public to donate to the cause. Johnson addressed the uproar more than six weeks after it first surfaced, telling his 389 million+ Instagram followers that he could understand their outrage.
In August, Winfrey and Johnson established the People’s Fund of Maui with $5 million each from their personal funds.
Winfrey, whose estimated net worth is $2.5 billion, said to CBS a few weeks later that she was shocked by what happened next. Social media users quickly reacted to the celebs, with a large number questioning why these incredibly affluent celebrities were soliciting donations when they could probably pay for the operation out of their own pockets.
Public Response
The immediate public reaction included complaints that wealthy celebrities were soliciting money.
The recovery activities required a significant amount of funding, and Johnson and Winfrey’s fund was established with the intention of giving those impacted significant assistance. The fund’s main objective was to give money to people who had lost their houses in the disastrous Lahaina and Kula fires. Eligible beneficiaries were expected to receive $1,200 per month from this fund.
