Jada Pinkett Smith has described how much she was impacted by her husband slapping Chris Rock at this year's Oscars.
Will Smith assaulted the comedian during the ceremony for a joke he made about Pinkett Smith's alopecia, which she has suffered with for several years.
While she has generally been reluctant to offer her opinion on the incident, the actress did take time on Wednesday's episode of Red Table Talk to speak with fellow sufferers of the hair-loss disorder.
Her guests included the mother of Rio Allred, a 12-year-old girl who took her own life after being bullied over hair-loss.
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“Considering what I’ve been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories,” Pinkett Smith said during Wednesday’s episode.
The Rock joke in question, which provoked an angry response from Will, was as follows: “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it!"
Pinkett-Smith, who has very publicly spoken about her alopecia struggles, now has a closely shaved head which bares a resemblance to Demi Moore in the 1997 movie G.I. Jane 2.
This led to Smith, star of King Richard, slapping Rock once across the face live on stage, causing a media storm in the process.
Smith subsequently apologised, but not before he scooped the Oscar award for Best Male Actor.
“Now, about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile,” Pinkett Smith said on her show in an indirect reference to the two male protagonists of that night.
“The state of the world today, we need them both, and we all actually need one another more than ever."
“Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together,” she added, having previously only addressed the incident in a brief Instagram post that read: “This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.”
On Wednesday's episode of the Facebook Watch talk-show, Pinkett-Smith also spoke about the 'shame' that millions feel living with alopecia.
Nicole Ball, mother of Rio, detailed the profound impact that the Oscar incident had on her and her family - which came just a fortnight after her own daughter's death.
“What is the universe doing right now? This is crazy,’” Ball recalled thinking.
“People are going to be Googling, ‘What is alopecia....What is this that we’ve never heard of?’ It’s not a joke.”
According to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, the disorder affects as many as 6.8 million people in the United States of any age, sex and ethnic group, and the symptoms can vary.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Alopecia UK on 0800 101 7025 (available 10am - 4pm, Mon- Fri), via email or their website.
Topics: Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Oscars, US News, Chris Rock
Tom Fenton