Antonio Banderas Tests Positive for COVID-19, Reveals Childhood Photo

Antonio Banderas is the latest celebrity to announce that they have tested positive for COVID-19, sharing his diagnosis with fans on his 60th birthday on Monday. Along with a black and white photo of himself as a toddler, the actor revealed that he was “forced” to celebrate his birthday in quarantine after having tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Greetings to all. I want to make public that today, August 10, I am forced to celebrate my 60th birthday following quarantine, having tested positive for the COVID-19 disease, caused by the coronavirus,” he wrote in Spanish. Banderas continued by describing his symptoms, writing, “I would like to add that I feel relatively well, just a little more tired than usual and confident that I will recover as soon as possible following the medical indications that I hope will allow me to overcome the infectious process that I suffer and that is affecting so many people around the planet.”

The Spanish star added that he plans to “read, write, and rest” during his self isolation and will continue to make “plans to begin to give meaning” to his 60 years, to which he has arrived “full of enthusiasm.” “A big hug to everyone,” he concluded. With his announcement, Banderas joins a number of celebrities — including Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Idris Elba, Andy Cohen, Pink and Prince Charles — who have all announced that they had tested positive for COVID-19.

In 2017, Banderas suffered a heart attack and opened up to USA Today last year about how the experience changed his life, noting that things he previously thought were important no longer mattered. “You realize the only thing that is really, really (definite) is death — everything else is relative,” he said. “I am less afraid to actually be me because you realize that you will die. When you get to a certain age, you know that; it’s always there in your brain. But this is a different thing: This is almost like death talked to you and she said, ‘I’m close.’ You lose the fear to just express yourself in a different way, and I think the heart attack brought me that.”

“Now, there is only space for truth and nothing else. So you start searching for it: What is my truth? What am I? What is my role in life?” he continued. “Then all the people you love (become even more important) — your daughter, your family, your friends — and now I’m just in the process of trying to make my profession what it was in the beginning: my hobby, the thing I really love to do, regardless of what it is going to bring to me.”