Jada Pinkett Smith referred to her husband Will Smith hitting Chris Rock during the 94th Academy Awards in 2022 as a “holy slap,” saying it had some positive results.
The 52-year-old actress reflected on the incident during a newly published interview with Daily Mail’s YOU Magazine. “I nearly didn’t even attend the Oscars that year, but I’m glad I did,” Jada told the outlet. “I call it the ‘holy slap’ now because so many positive things came after it.”
Will stormed onto the stage to hit Rock after he made a joke about Jada’s bald head. She was diagnosed with the medical condition alopecia, which causes her hair to fall out, though Rock said he wasn’t aware of that when he told the joke. The “Men In Black” actor has publicly apologized for his actions.
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Meanwhile, Jada announced in her memoir that she and Will had been “separated” since 2016 but were still technically married.
“That moment of the s*** hitting the fan is when you see where you really are,” Jada told YOU Magazine. “After all those years trying to figure out if I would leave Will’s side, it took that slap for me to see I will never leave him.”
“Who knows where our relationship would be if that hadn’t happened?” she added.
Jada had previously discussed the slap while promoting her memoir “Worthy,” which was released in October. She claims to have thought the slap incident was a pre-planned skit even as she was sitting in the audience watching it happen firsthand.
“I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’” she told People in October. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.” She recalled the first words she said to him after he returned to his seat, which were, “Are you okay?”
“I’m going to be by his side, but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself,” Jada said of her husband.
She told NBC News interviewer Hoda Kotb that she didn’t plan on leaving Will during another interview the same month. “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through … whatever,” Jada said. “I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”