(Newsone) Actor Idris Elba and his wife, model Sabrina Dhowre Elba, are causing some major online debates for her decision to stay with her husband during his fight with the coronavirus. Now that she has tested positive for the virus, the couple is especially causing discussion on whether it was right to quarantine with her husband or if the two should’ve practiced social distancing.
According to NBC News, the couple talked with Oprah Winfrey via FaceTime for her Apple TV episode “Oprah Talks: COVID-19”, and Sabrina explained her decision to stay with her husband when he first tested positive last week.
“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,” Sabrina said. “But I made the decision to want to be with him and, you know, still touch him.”
Idris further explained that the two had been together the day of his probable exposure to a person who tested positive and they remained together until he left to shoot a movie.
“If I had caught it, she had certainly caught it in that time period, as well,” Idris said to Oprah. “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.”
The two say they feel well and haven’t experienced any symptoms of COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. Sabrina explained that she feels the equivalent of seasonal allergies that could be symptoms, but she feels okay overall.
Despite the positivity of the couple, people on social media had major criticism for their decision to stay together and some folks even questioned whether they really contracted the virus. It got so bad that Idris had to hop online to address the comments.
Much of the chatter occurred on the popular Instagram page The Shade Room. They reposted the Oprah interview with Idris and Sabrina and the comment section was pretty intense. One user wrote, “A real husband ain’t gone put his wife at risk to a deadly flu disease.” Another user commented, “I’m sorry so she couldn’t have stayed properly dressed enough to not contact the virus and be with him? It’s called common sense. She just volunteered herself to get it. Congratulations wife of the year.”
Other people didn’t believe the couple had the virus since they weren’t showing symptoms. “This isn’t real,” wrote one user. “They are fine & its ppl out here who really has it and that’s suffering smh.” Another user wrote, “We need to start seeing these tests being done and the results cuz now people are using CoronaVirus for relevance.”
Mr. Elba clearly saw all the chatter because he hopped right in the comment section with a response, saying he would’ve stayed by Sabrina’s side as well if she contracted the coronavirus first:
“It’s crazy how people see real love and think it’s fake..like people can’t genuinely have each other’s backs. i don’t get it. I would have done the same for Sab without question!! I wouldn’t fake that I have a life threatening virus, that would be beyond foolish, I can’t imagine what we’d get from doing that!! So please don’t let the ‘conspiracy theorists’ fool you right now. Look out for someone that maybe going through it right now, everyone is affected by this. Spread love not hate right now.”
He added in another comment:
“We are not being paid to say we have a virus!! That’s beyond conspiracies man!! That’s next level. I’m just thankful we haven’t lost our lives like so many.. and I hope people get the message that is real, not fake.”
Some people support Idris’ and Sabrina’s decisions with one user writing, “Those are the rules…I would have did the exact same thing for my husband.” Another user typed, “This is beautiful!!!Unconditional love #StandByYourMan Prayers up for this couple’s complete healing.”
Clearly, every couple is different. Hopefully, Idris and Sabrina will experience a speedy recovery.
