Zac Efron was hospitalized after pool dive gone wrong: The latest on 'swimming incident'
The "High School Musical" alum has since said he's “happy and healthy.”
Zac Efron says he’s “healthy” after a swimming pool incident in Spain left him hospitalized — and now more details have emerged about what went down.
What happened?
The Family Affair star, 36, was at a villa in Ibiza on Aug. 2 when he had a “minor swimming incident” and was hospitalized overnight for “precautionary measures,” his spokesperson told People. He was released the morning of Aug. 3 with his rep saying, “He is fine."
TMZ, the first outlet to report the hospitalization, said the actor “was found inside the swimming pool by two people working at the villa who pulled him out of the water.” Efron’s rep declined to provide further details to the outlet on what led to the incident.
Amid continued speculation, the same two outlets reported on Aug. 5 and 6 that the accident stemmed from Efron, who was swimming with friends, diving too deeply into the pool. Unidentified sources said his chest hit the bottom of the pool and he ingested lots of water into his lungs. Security at the villa pulled him out of the pool after he showed signs of distress.
Efron was said to have been dazed momentarily as it played out, so he was taken to the hospital to get checked out. He had X-rays on his chest to make sure there was no water in his lungs and he was medically cleared within hours. He didn't leave the hospital immediately, however, because he was trying to evade paparazzi outside.
A rep for Efron has not yet responded to Yahoo’s request for comment.
What has Efron said?
On Aug. 4, the High School Musical alum used Instagram to thank those expressing “well wishes” amid his hospitalization. He shared a workout photo of himself, shirtless and lifting weights atop an exercise ball, and also wrote that he is “happy and healthy” on his Instagram Stories.
His friend Caleb Davidge also shared an image of them together.
What else do we know?
Efron — who has had a busy year, also including the films Ricky Stanicky and The Iron Claw — has been vacationing in Europe. Leading up to his swimming incident, he appeared onstage with DJ Martin Garrix at his performance at the Ushua?a Ibiza Hotel and Beach Club. A TikTok video showed Efron dancing along as the audience cheered.
It’s been 10 years since Efron was hospitalized after another accident: In November 2013, he was running through his house in socks and slipped. He hit his face on a granite fountain, shattering his jaw, and was knocked unconscious. Efron opened up about the 2013 accident to Men’s Health in 2022, saying when he came to, his chinbone was hanging off his face. Efron said he looks different because in the aftermath of the injury, other facial muscles had to compensate for the muscles that were still recovering.
In June, amid the release of A Family Affair on Netflix, there was online chatter about Efron’s appearance. Pointing to that film as well as his massive transformation to play a wrestler in The Iron Claw, people speculated online that he had undergone plastic surgery on his jaw.
Efron told the Hollywood Reporter in December, when The Iron Claw was released, that his physical transformation for that film was “jarring,” even to him.
“In the best way possible, I did not look anything like me,” he said. However, he’s also said that what the internet thinks of him and his appearance isn’t something he pays that much mind to.
“If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work,” he told Men’s Health in 2022.
Updated, Aug. 6, 2024, 9:56 a.m.: This story was originally published on Aug. 5 and has been updated to include new details about Efron's accident.
