Jared Leto Says Finding Out About COVID-19 Was Like 'The Zombie Apocalypse'

Last March when the world was first grappling with the coronavirus outbreak, Thirty Seconds to Mars' Jared Leto was on a 12-day meditation retreat blissfully unaware of what was going on.

While finding his inner peace and relieving stress, unbeknownst to him, the outside world was starting to shut down due to the pandemic and everyone was feeling anything but peaceful.  

Upon his arrival back to civilization and the Internet, the singer took to social media to tell his followers, “We had no idea what was happening outside the facility” and briefly explained friends and family filled him in on the news.

Fast forward to January 2021, Leto explained exactly what happened on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and how it felt coming back to LA after so much had changed.

“When we were in there they didn't tell us,” he explained. “We didn't have our phones, there was no talking, no eye contact, no TV. The teachers made a decision, 'let's not disturb the participants.'”

In just a two-week period, the cases surged so much that it was hard for Leto to really even grasp what had happened. He recalled keeping his phone off while driving back to LA after the retreat to keep his inner peace until he got home and the news came flooding in.

“When I went away there were about 150 cases. And just in that short amount of time when I came out there was a shutdown, a state of emergency, and the whole world had changed,” he said. “It was shocking. I don't think anything could quite prepare any of us for what we all went through... It was like coming out to the zombie apocalypse.”

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