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Antonio Banderas Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Spending His Birthday In Quarantine

Antonio Banderas

Many celebrities have revealed that they’ve contracted coronavirus since the pandemic began. Most notably, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson self-isolated after coming down with COVID-19 in the early days of the outbreak. Since then, others who have been known to have tested positive include Idris Elba, Mel Gibson and Pink. The latest is beloved Spanish star Antonio Banderas, who’s revealed that he’s having to spend his 60th birthday in quarantine due to the viral infection.

Banderas – known for his many famous roles, in such movies as The Mask of Zorro, Desperado and as the voice of Puss in Boots in the Shrek franchise, among others – shared the news on his Twitter account this Monday, August 10th. The lengthy letter, written in his native language, was posted alongside a picture of the actor as a baby.

“Greetings to you all. I want to make public that today, 10th of August, I am forced to celebrate my 60th birthday in quarantine after being tested positive for COVID-19, caused by coronavirus,” Banderas wrote, as translated into English. “I would like to add that I’m relatively fine, just a little bit more tired than usual and confident to 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 people is affecting around the planet.”

Antonio Banderas

Banderas goes on to say that he’s using his birthday isolation to spend time reading, writing, resting and reflecting on his life as he reaches the big 6-0. The replies to his post are full of good-natured messages from colleagues and fans, too, wishing him an otherwise happy birthday and hoping that he gets better soon. The actor currently resides in rural England, after moving away from Hollywood five years ago.

Nevertheless, he’s still got a couple of parts in major movies coming up – namely, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and Uncharted, both of which are due out next year.

Happy birthday, Antonio Banderas. We wish you a speedy recovery!