‘I couldn’t walk’: Rita Wilson describes her coronavirus diagnosis

In one of her first interviews since she and husband, Tom Hanks have recovered from coronavirus, Rita Wilson has opened up about their experience with the virus after spending weeks in quarantine.

Speaking to CBS This Morning host Gayle King on Tuesday, the actress and singer revealed the extent of the symptoms they suffered after contracting the virus while in Australia last month.

“I was very tired,” she said. “I felt extremely achy … uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched and then the fever started. Chills like I’ve never had before. Looking back, I realise I was also losing my sense of taste and smell which I didn’t realise at the time.”

Rita said she had a fever that reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.8C) and that she was given chloroquine, a drug that has been used to prevent and treat malaria, to reduce the fever.

“I can only tell you that I don’t know if the drug worked or if it was just time for my fever to break, but my fever did break,” she explained. “But the chloroquine had extreme side effects. I could not walk. My muscles felt very weak.”

As for her actor husband, Rita admitted Tom experienced “milder symptoms”.

“He didn’t have as high of a fever,” she said. “He did not lose his sense of taste or smell, but it still took us the same time to get through it.”

.@RitaWilson tells @GayleKing she took #chloroquine to treat COVID-19: I can only tell you that I don't know if the drug worked or it was just time for the fever to break. My fever did break but the chloroquine had such extreme side effects… We don't really know if it's helpful pic.twitter.com/8xej1NyhaQ

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 14, 2020

The duo, who have been married for over 30 years, shocked the world last month when they revealed that they had tested positive for Covid-19. Tom confirmed the news on social media and revealed that he and Rita were tested after they began to feel like they had a cold, as well as suffering muscle aches, fatigue and chills. They returned positive results and are were taken straight to hospital.

“Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia,” Tom wrote on Instagram at the time. “We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.”

He added: “Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?”

During her time in quarantine, Rita shared a video of her performing an impromptu rap with her 963K Instagram followers.

In the video, the 63-year-old can be seen sitting on the couch reading a book, before suddenly busting out in a rap. And she didn’t miss a beat either — rapping for a full four minutes.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-BqChYnY6F/?utm_source=ig_embed