Jada Pinkett Smith has FINALLY broken her silence on her husband Will slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
Chris was presenting the Best Documentary Oscar at the show back in March when he made a joke about the Men In Black star’s wife Jada, apparently alluding to her bald head by calling her “G.I. Jane”.
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!”
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
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.
18 months later, Jada has opened up about the incident in a new interview with PEOPLE.
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 realized it wasn’t a skit.”
Once they were alone after the show, Jada asked her husband: “Are you okay?”
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.”
