Topics: Will Smith, Oscars, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock
Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about her side of the infamous Oscars slap story.
There have been so many stories about the moment that Will Smith walked onto the stage at the 94th Academy Awards and struck host Chris Rock.
The comedian had just made a bald joke about Jada and Will quickly stepped in and told him to keep his wife's name out of his mouth.
However, the situation escalated when Smith approached Rock and slapped him across the face and then sat back down as if nothing happened.
Advert
The incident sparked a million headlines and there was so much commentary about it over the following days, weeks and months.
However, now we've finally been told about what Jada thought of the whole thing.
In an interview with PEOPLE, she explained that she thought it was scripted.
"I thought, ‘This is a skit'," she said.
“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.”
It definitely wasn't a skit, even though there were some conspiracy theories about whether Rock and Smith had coordinated it.
She revealed that the first thing she said to her husband once they were alone was 'are you okay'.
Following the slap, the Oscars continued on Will received the Academy Award for Best Actor for King Richard only moments later.
In her upcoming memoir, titled Worthy, she said that she was always going to be 'by his [Will's] side' following the infamous slap.
But she also needed to allow 'him to have to figure this out for himself'.
Smith eventually apologized for the slap and he received a ban from the Academy for 10 years.
In a video, the Oscar-winner said: "I was fogged out by that point. It's all fuzzy. I've reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk. And when he is, he will reach out.
"So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk."
He added: "But I can say to all of you, there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment.
"There's no part of me that thinks that's the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults."
