Oprah Winfrey recently shared a clip of a FaceTime interview she completed with Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina Dhowre.
The interview is on Winfrey’s new Apple TV series, which will have different episodes that focus on the current pandemic. On March 16, Elba announced that he tested positive for the illness, and Dhowre told Winfrey that she’s also been infected.
“Actually, I found out this morning, Oprah, that I tested positive,” Dhowre revealed.
“I could have made the decision to put myself maybe in a separate room or stay away, and I’m sure that people are making those decisions, and they’re tough decisions to make,” she also explained. “But I made the decision to want to be with him, and, you know, still touch him.”
Elsewhere during the discussion, Elba said he sees something positive coming out of this situation since the whole world is facing it.
“One of the upsides of this whole drama is that we are forced to think together as a race … as a human race,” he explained. “Also, our world has been taking a kicking, and we’ve damaged our world.”
He added, “It’s no surprise that our world is reacting to the human race.” “It’s no surprise that a virus has been created that is going to slow us down, and ultimately make us think differently about our world and ourselves. For me, that’s a standout thing that’s very obvious.”
Winfrey then agreed with Elba and said it would be a mistake if the world looked at the pandemic only as a physical health issue and not as a teaching moment.
“This is a moment for our humanity to either rise or not,” Winfrey stated.
Elba also shared that he and his wife were together on the day that he contracted the illness, so staying away from him would’ve probably been useless.
He addressed the backlash that Dhowre received for choosing to be by his side after being diagnosed.
“If I had caught it, she had certainly caught it in that time period as well,” Elba explained. “People were right to have highlighted that spatial distancing is important. I think given the context of the video, which was telling the world what has happened to us, we weren’t thinking about that specifically.”
Both Elba and Dhowre said they feel okay at this point, and Dhowre told Winfrey that her symptoms are comparable to having allergies.
