Folks like to give Leonardo DiCaprio flak for dating women who were born after Titanic had left the theaters and promoting environmental causes while still flying on private jets and hiring private yachts. Well, prepare to eat your carbon footprint, haters – because the true reason Leo sails around on those fancy boats has just been revealed: he’s a top-secret superhero who saves people on a luxury cruiser! Maybe he’s not actually a superhero (tbd, if you ask me) but he did use his chartered yacht to save a man who’d fallen from a cruise ship and had been in the water for 11 hours until Leo pulled him out.
Leonardo DiCaprio and his friends were in the right place at the right time to help save a life.
The Oscar-winning actor, 45, was vacationing with his friends and girlfriend Camila Morrone on a rented boat near St. Barts on Dec. 30 when they heard there was an emergency call that a search was on for a man who had drunkenly fallen overboard from a Club Med yacht.
“Leo and his friends and their boat captain decided to join the search and their efforts resulted in helping save a man’s life,” a source tells PEOPLE exclusively. The man had been treading water for 11 hours.
The insider adds, “The boat crew were happy to try and assist — even more so that they were able to help get the man to safety.”
DiCaprio’s boat happened to be the only one searching in the area where the man had drifted. The man was spotted and rescued in rough water, about an hour before the sun set and a heavy rainstorm set in.
The Daily Mail has some grainy photos of Leo and the man on the boat. I am boater adjacent as my oldest brother sailed a 36-foot sailboat from San Diego to Tahiti. As I understand it (and Boating CBers can clarify or correct this) the rule of the sea is that if a distress call goes out, the closest boat goes to help. It’s an honor code/pride among sailors thing but it is vital. At one point, my brother’s radio conked out and we’d lost contact. But we got a phone call from a stranger who’d come across them and told us everything was fine; they’d get it fixed in the next port. Apparently, that’s what sailors do, look out for each other. By this wording, it sounds like Leo had to approve the change of course. I guess I understand that, given he’d paid for a certain trip, but could he have said no? It doesn’t matter, Leo agreed and gave his full assistance to the rescue effort, which likely saved the man’s life. They all get to be heroes.
Can you imagine what was going through that man’s mind, though? After a day of treading water, he’s starving, dehydrated, exhausted, terrified and on the brink of hallucinations when a light blinks in the distance. He uses the last bit of his strength to wave the light down and right as he’s about to pass out after being pulled from the water he looks up and says, “Is that Gatsby?” I really hope Leo keeps a door-shaped inflatable on board for these kinds of situation, “See? Plenty of room!”
Credit where credit is due. Maybe Leo likes his chartered yachts but if he’s doing stuff like this, he gets a few brownie points. We can still mock his age requirement for girlfriends, though.
Do you need saving? How about you?
Photo credit: WENN Photos
Wow, I’m glad that man was rescued. How terrifying. Open water is one of my big fears. (and the movie, Open Water, is probably the most terrifying movie I’ve ever seen.) And when I say, “open water” I mean like….the deep end of a swimming pool, lol. (I hate jumping into water when I cant touch the bottom.)
Anyway – my fears aside – I have always thought Leo was a decent person. Douche-y in many ways, yes, but not an out and out asshole or a horrible person.
The scariest thing about that movie is that it’s based on a true story! It’s happened more than once. Head count anyone? You couldn’t pay me enough to let a boat drop me off in the middle of nowhere for scuba diving. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back in a few hours. No, really!”
I’ve never been scuba diving where the boat dropped off and left. I don’t think I’d go diving if there wasn’t a safe spot waiting for me ya know? Having to tread water in all that equipment until the captain returns from his rum punch party? Um. No.
And there was plenty of room on the door.
I couldn’t even watch the trailer for that movie. I have a very irrational shark fear.
agree on your take of Leo. he may be a dude-bro when it comes to women/dating, but he has NEVER struck me as self-involved or any kind of a-hole.
That movie is THE MOST HORRIFIC movies ever. I still think about it. Just absolutely terrifying, devastating, and…unforgettable.
I watched that movie with my husband almost a decade ago. I was upset about it for days. I still get upset if I think about it too deeply.
Other movies we watched together that upset me (especially once I found out the real story behind them):
That Everest movie
Into the Wild (Until I read just how ill prepared, arrogant and unskilled that guy was, then I was like “🤦🏾♀️… Welp 🤷🏿♀️, he probably had that one coming.”)
Omg same. If water has a current, you won’t see me go in above my waist because I’m terrified of an undertow or wave.
“Can you imagine what was going through that man’s mind, though? After a day of treading water, he’s starving, dehydrated, exhausted, terrified and on the brink of hallucinations when a light blinks in the distance.”
If I saw Jack from Titanic coming towards me in that situation, I’d pretty much assume I was dead and somehow made it to the last scene of that movie.
Lol me too, poor guy must have thought he was hallucinating Leonardo DiCaprio
I was trying to imagine the same – treading water for 11 hours and on the verge passing out from exhaustion. If this one of the sailor codes, I love it and way to go, Leo and crew!
Even predators (I said what I said!) can do good from time to time. He’s still a hypocrite who lacks any kind of boundaries in regards to his dating choice (dating a familyfriend he has known since she was a child and he was in his thirties). And his MASSIVE consumerism and his questionable charity just deepens my disdain for him even more.
My heart will go on…
Well that’s actually pretty cool!
Family members are in the Coast Guard and the State Police’s Marine Division say that when a distress call goes out, all boats in the area must participate in the rescue or search efforts and they can be cited if they don’t.
Good to have the clarification. I really like this story though, that cheesy photo with his blue suit and hilarious caption and all the Titanic jokes😄.
I hope the man pulled out of the water is doing well-what a hell of a thing to experience.
Just wanted to thank your family members for what they do – I’m on the coast, there’s a coast guard station here, and I’ve seen those guys out there training in all kinds of weather and situations. They work so hard!
Thanks. The Coast Guard is the least recognized branch of our military and probably the one that interacts with the public the most. During a recent Celtics game, they did a salute to the CG and showed several high risks rescues they had pulled off in the past year. One involved a guy diving out of a helicopter into rough seas, rounding up 4 people who were in the water near a sinking boat, strapping one or two of them onto stretchers, lifting them all back up into the helicopter one by one before going back up himself. The courage to do that is beyond anything I can imagine.
My cousins in the State police do stuff like escort LNG tankers into port – their job is to position themselves between the tanker and any terrorist trying to ram it. They also dive to retrieve bodies from sinking ships and plane crashes. Just amazing
Leo, Leo, Leo…… (shakes head)….. You care about the environment. You are out there literally saving lives. But in like five years, you are officially going to be a dirty old man. Is Charlize Theron single? Give her a call.
Why in 5 years? To the 20 year olds he dates, he’s older than their fathers. I think that probably qualifies him as a “dirty old man”!
And also – what did Charlize T do to deserve that?!
LOL!! Yes! Leave poor Charlize out of it. First Brad, now Leo?
“Leo just happened to be on a boat who’s crew rescued a man” is closer to the truth, no?
What y’all don’t realize is that Leo likes romancing young women more than he cares about being mocked for it.
Leo is an example of what Berlin George said yesterday about Timothy C and the affects of aging on pretty young guys: “his features are going to migrate to the center of his face”
I think that after a devastating and panic filled day of treading open water, if Leo came to rescue me, I’d probably just assume that I had died. “Oh what do you know, there is an afterlife. I KNEW LEO WOULD BE IN IT AND THAT HE WOULD COME FOR ME.” I don’t know that I could even be convinced at that point I wasn’t dead.
“I really hope Leo keeps a door-shaped inflatable on board for these kinds of situation, “See? Plenty of room!”
Thanks for the laughs!
As others said, if I saw Jack from the Titanic coming towards me, I’d assume I died.
People give Leo a hard time but I have no qualms about saying that I love him. He’s a fantastic actor and I still find him to be quite hot.