Chris Rock reveals he does seven hours of therapy a week
Chris Rock on Jan. 9, 2020. Credit: Getty Images/Matt Winkelmeyer
Comedy star Chris Rock says the increased weekly therapy he has chosen to undergo in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has given him new insight into himself.
"You have to tell the truth — you have to go into therapy prepared to tell the worst part of yourself every week," the four-time Emmy Award winner, 55, tells Gayle King, 66, in a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview at his New Jersey home, set to air Sunday. He says he currently attends therapy seven hours a week.
"I learned that I could be very hard on myself. Like really, really hard on myself, and I need to relax. And I need to listen, I need to take chances," says Rock, who reached No. 4 on Forbes magazine's 2018 list of highest-earning comedians, making an estimated $30 million over the previous year. (He exited the Top 10 in the 2019 list, the magazine's most recent.)
When asked what has been his most difficult self-revelation to face, Rock tells King, "I don't want to out anybody, I don't want to, you know, out myself," and notes that at times, "I wasn't kind, and sometimes I wasn't listening, and sometimes I was selfish … And sometimes, you know, I took advantage of circumstances and positions of, you know, just everyday things. … It's ultimately, who do you want to be?"
He says he eagerly awaits receiving a COVID-19 inoculation, and he acknowledged the suspicion he said some African Americans have expressed about the vaccine.
"I'm a Black man," Rock says. "I'm going to put it this way: Do I take Tylenol when I get a headache? Yes. Do I know what's in Tylenol? I don't know what's in Tylenol, Gayle. I just know my headache is gone. Do I know what's in a Big Mac, Gayle? No, I just know it's delicious."
He tells King, "As I always say, there are no ‘race relations,’ " adding that a true relationship exists only "when things are equal between two people. That's a relationship. OK? So when you say 'race relations,' that term doesn't really exist."
In September, Rock told The Hollywood Reporter he was diagnosed with nonverbal learning disorder (NVLD) after a nine-hour series of cognitive tests. He said the condition means he has challenges interpreting nonverbal signals in social situations.
