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Topics: Chris Rock, Oscars, Will Smith, Celebrity
Gregory Robinson
Topics: Chris Rock, Oscars, Will Smith, Celebrity
Chris Rock ‘had to go to counseling with his daughters’ after Will Smith slapped him on stage at the 2022 Academy Awards.
The Oscars last year took a very unexpected turn when the Fresh Prince of Bel Air star stormed the stage during Rock's hosting stint and slapped him in the face for making a joke referring to wife Jada Pinkett-Smith's shaved head.
Rock had referred to Jada as 'G.I Jane' in a passing comment that got a laugh from everyone in the crowd - including Smith.
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But moments later, Smith went on stage and struck the Everybody Hates Chris creator across the face, warning him to 'keep [his] wife's name out of [his] f***ing mouth'.
Although, he still walked away with his first ever Oscar for playing Richard Williams, the dad of Venus and Serena Williams in the biographical sports drama King Richard.
Former SNL star Leslie Jones has now revealed that her longtime friend Chris Rock went to counselling after the slap.
“That sh*t was humiliating. It really affected him,” Jones told People magazine. “People need to understand his daughters, his parents, saw that. He had to go to counselling with his daughters.”
Jones added that the slap ‘infuriated’ her, saying: “You don’t know that I was going to jump in my car and roll up there. I was so f**king mad on so many levels… Chris Rock did a f**king joke.
"I know Will, too… I was like, you couldn’t handle that s**t afterwards? This is the Oscars. The whole world is watching.”
UNILAD has reached out to Chris Rock's reps for comment.
The fallout from the slap was massive, and included Smith being banned from the Oscars for ten years and resigning from the Academy.
This year, the Academy Awards has even developed a 'crisis team' to prevent another similar incident.
Five months after the slap, Smith did issue a public apology to Rock, and while Rock has briefly touched on the issue in his stand-up, he has never spoken about it in detail or publicly forgiven Smith.
Rock called Smith a 'b***h' in a fiery attack on the actor in his Netflix special this year.
Amongst roars of laughter from the audience, Rock says: "Y'all know what happened to me, getting smacked by 'Suge Smith'."
The name is seemingly a reference to Suge Knight, the Death Row Records founder who was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2018 for manslaughter.
"I got smacked at the f**king Oscars by this motherf**ker," he continues.