Jada Pinkett Smith has claimed Chris Rock asked her out on a date, during the time when it was rumoured she was divorcing her husband Will.
The actress’ revelation comes over a year after Will infamously slapped Chris at the 2022 Oscars.
The comedian was presenting the Best Documentary Oscar at the show when he made a joke about the Men In Black star’s wife, apparently alluding to her bald head by calling her “G.I. Jane”.
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face at the #Oscars last night after he made a “GI Jane” joke about his wife Jada.
The comedian was referring to the actress’s bald hair, despite Jada previously revealing this was due to alopecia 😬 pic.twitter.com/H6HO1xMNGF
— Goss.ie (@goss_ie) March 28, 2022
After Chris made the joke, Will stormed onto the stage, slapped Chris across the face and warned him: “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth!”
The situation caused uproar at the time, and Will was subsequently banned from attending the Oscars and all Academy events for 10 years after the incident.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, Jada revealed her relationship with Will has been strained, and they’ve been separated for seven years.
During the interview, Jada claimed Chris asked her out on a date when rumours began to swirl that she and Will were getting a divorce.
“Basically, he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out,'” Jada told PEOPLE of her Madagascar co-star.
“And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumours.’”
“He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”
In the same interview, Jada opened up about that infamous Oscars slap, 18 months after the matter.
The 52-year-old admitted: “I thought, ‘This is a skit.’ ” Like many people watching the incident unfold on live TV, she didn’t believe it was real at first. “I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him.”
“It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realised it wasn’t a skit.”
Once they were alone after the show, Jada asked her husband: “’Are you okay?’”
Credit: Instagram
She explained: “I’m going to be by his side but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.”
When asked about their marriage today, Jada admitted: “We’re still figuring it out.”
She told the magazine that she and Will had been separated for six years before the 2022 Oscars, adding: “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
