Mel Gibson spent in the week in hospital with coronavirus, it has been revealed.
The 64-year-old actor – who is based in Los Angeles, California – was in medical care for a week after being infected with COVID-19 but his condition was kept private and he has since recovered.
‘He tested positive in April and spent a week in the hospital,’ Gibson’s representative told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.
The rep said he was treated with an anti-viral medication that the US bought almost all of the world’s stocks for in June.
Mel Gibson spent in the week in hospital with coronavirus in April. The 64-year-old actor – who is based in Los Angeles, California – kept the hospitalization private until now
‘He was treated with the drug Remdesivir,’ his rep said. Gibson is pictured in Malibu on July 12 wearing a face mask under his nose
‘He was treated with the drug Remdesivir, while in the hospital, and has tested negative numerous times since then as well as positive for the antibodies,’ the rep continued.
The US stocked up on 90 percent of what is available from the next three months from Gilead Sciences.
Gibson was spotted out strolling around Malibu on July 12, wearing a face mask below his nose. His partner Rosalind Ross, 30 also wore the protective covering incorrectly.
At the start of April there were less than 10,000 cases reported in California and by the end of the month there were 46,570 cases reported.
However the state didn’t see the surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations expected after being one of the earliest states to shut down in March.
Now California has the highest number of reported cases.
Gibson and his partner Rosalind Ross are pictured on January 5, 2019. California had already begun shutdowns by the time he was hospitalized in April. His rep said he has antibodies
Earlier this month actress and director Joanne Samuel backed her longtime friend after he was accused of making anti-Semitic and bigoted remarks by actress Winona Ryder.
Ryder said that the Oscar-winning actor and director made anti-Semitic and bigoted remarks.
The 62-year-old, who starred with Gibson in the 1979 flick, Mad Max, told The Daily Telegraph that she takes all the allegations against him with a ‘grain of salt because I know what he is like’.
‘He is a loyal, wonderful, very generous, talented, creative, and great guy,’ Joanne gushed about the Braveheart star who she has remained friends with for more than four decades.
Offering a different perspective, Joanne claimed: ‘He is like you or anybody else. He has his good side, and he struggles with different things, but not all of us have cameras and people running around after us everywhere to capture that stuff and make of it what they will.’
She once again drove her point home, saying: ‘I know him as a good friend. He is such a generous man and a lovely person.’
Gibson also accused the Stranger Things star of lying about their interactions.
‘Loyal and very generous’: Actress Joanne Samuel gushed about the Braveheart star earlier this month after Winona Ryder claimed he made anti-Semitic comments and asked her gay friend: ‘Oh, wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’
‘This is 100% untrue,’ a representative for Gibson said in a statement to TooFab. ‘She lied about it over a decade ago, when she talked to the press, and she’s lying about it now.
‘Also, she lied about him trying to apologize to her back then. He did reach out to her, many years ago, to confront her about her lies and she refused to address it with him.’
The Heathers actress, 48, claimed Gibson asked her if she was an ‘oven-dodger’, an apparent reference to her Jewish faith, in an interview with the Sunday Times.
‘We were at a crowded party with one of my good friends, and Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar,’ began the Black Swan actress.
Ryder – whose birth name is Winona Laura Horowitz – said when the issue of her faith came up, Gibson asked, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?’
The slur is a reference to the method by which Jewish bodies were incinerated during the Holocaust.
Ryder also claimed that at the same party, the Passion of the Christ director asked her friend, who was gay, ‘Oh, wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’
This month is was also reported that Gibson will not reprise the role of Rocky in Chicken Run 2.
The animated sequel will not use Gibson’s voice talent for the sequel to his 2000 hit film, which was announced by Aardman Animation Studios, two individuals with knowledge of the production told The Wrap.
This month it was reported that Gibson will not reprise the role of Rocky in Chicken Run 2