Actress and singer Rita Wilson has marked the one-year anniversary of contracting COVID-19 with an Instagram post that recounts the day she started feeling sick.
Wilson and her husband, actor Tom Hanks, were one of the first Hollywood celebrities to announce to the world that they were infected with the novel coronavirus on March 11, 2020.
“One year ago today I was playing the Sydney Opera House @sydneyoperahouse, the next day started feeling very tired and achy, two days later hospitalized with Covid 19,” Wilson wrote in her post. “I want to take a moment to say how grateful we are for our health, how thankful we are for the medical care we got in Queensland, and that we share in the sorrow of each person who lost a loved one to this virus. I’m hopeful for so many being able to get the vaccine.”
In the post, Wilson shared a picture in front of the Sydney Opera House. The actress and Hanks, both 64, were in Australia to shoot for the actor’s upcoming film, a Baz Luhrmann-directed Elvis Presley biopic. Filming had to be halted due to their diagnosis, and the couple quarantined in Australia while they recovered from the virus.
“We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive,” they wrote in a tweet at the time.
Hanks and Wilson later donated plasma in order to aid research on the virus.
The ‘Terminal’ actor has been vocal about his COVID-19 experience and the need for people to be careful.
“Here we are. And let’s just all do our part, eh?” Hanks said in an interview in August 2020. “Can we not all just wear a mask and social distance and wash our hands? It sounds pretty simple to me, and if you have a problem with that, I certainly wouldn’t trust you with a driver’s license. Chances are you’ll drive as fast as you want to, never use your turn signal and aim for pedestrians.”
