Tom Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson reveals ‘extreme’ side effects of chloroquine as she describes couple’s coronavirus recovery

‘I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak’

Rita Wilson, the actress married to Tom Hanks who was diagnosed with Covid-19 along with her husband in March, has described “extreme” side effects she suffered due to a controversial drug in a new interview.

The drug, touted by some — including Donald Trump in multiple White House press briefings — as a potential coronavirus treatment, is called hydrochloroquine, and is typically used in malaria cases. It has not yet been proven to treat Covid-19, though several anecdotal reports claim patients have recovered from the novel virus after using the antimalarial treatment.

The actress said she could not be sure whether the drug helped her or not — though it caused “extreme side effects” that continued even as her body temperature was declining.

“I know people have been talking about this drug … but I can only tell you that I don’t know if the drug worked or if it was just time for the fever to break”, Ms Wilson told CBS’ Gayle King in an interview that aired on Tuesday morning.

“My fever did break, but the chloroquine had such extreme side effects,” She said. “I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak.”

“I think people have to be very considerate about that drug,” she added. “We don’t really know if it’s helpful in this case.”

Mr Hanks did not experience as severe of symptoms, according to Ms Wilson. He was the guest of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and filmed the show’s opening monologue from the couple’s home in California. They returned to Los Angeles after recovering from the coronavirus at a hospital in Australia, where they were visiting for work.

Ms Wilson told CBS she felt “very tired, extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched” after contracting the disease in March.

Now that the couple has recovered from the virus, they have remained in self-isolation and donated their blood for an antibodies study as health officials race to develop a vaccine.

Ms Wilson added that she and Mr Hanks feel “completely normal” and no longer have any remaining symptoms, according to Ms King.

There are nearly 550,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US, and at least 21,662 people have died nationwide due to the novel virus. Health officials have warned those figures are likely higher due to significant issues the country faced in distributing testing kits.

Ms Wilson and Mr Hanks were believed to have contracted the virus in the US or while travelling to Australia, where they were quarantined for two weeks at the hospital before recovering and returning home.