Less than a week before she reacted grimly to a joke from Chris Rock about her loss of hair, seemingly triggering her husband Will Smith to stride onstage and strike the comedian, Jada Pinkett Smith, whose alopecia left her without hair, stated in a TikTok video that she loved her bald head and didn’t care what people thought, asserting, “I don’t give two craps what people feel about this bald head of mine. Because guess what? I love it.”
Jada Pinkett Smith stated, “Being a black woman and dealing with hair in Hollywood, especially in the era I came up in, having your hair look as European as possible was always the thing. That was really challenging, you know, because I liked my hair out wild and curly. But nobody wanted that, so I always had to do my hair in ways that didn’t feel natural to me because of trying to play the game.”
“So if I’m doing a cover, everybody’s ‘No, we want your hair straight and flowy,’ when it’s like, ‘All right, cool, but that’s not really like what my hair likes to do,’” she added. “I had to learn to get the courage to just go, ‘Nahh, I’m not doing that,’ which is why I feel the freedom today. I don’t give two craps what people feel about this bald head of mine. Because guess what? I love it.”
The video of the moment Chris Rock made the joke shows Will Smith initially laughing while his wife looked on grimly before Smith strode onstage.
Here's the moment Chris Rock made a "G.I. Jane 2" joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, prompting Will Smith to punch him and yell, "Leave my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth." #Oscars pic.twitter.com/kHTZXI6kuL
— Variety (@Variety) March 28, 2022
On a 2018 episode of her show Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith said, “It was terrifying when it first started. … I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, “Oh my god, am I going bald?” It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking in fear. That’s why I cut my hair, and why I continue to cut it,’” The Daily Mail reported.
In December 2021 she stated on an Instagram video: “Now at this point, I can only laugh. Y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. Look at that. … ‘So it just showed up like that and this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide. So I thought I’d just share it so y’all are not asking any questions.”
Last September, she urged viewers of her video to support three “BOLD women who decide to take a COURAGEOUS hair journey and go GORGEOUSLY BALD!”
As The Daily Wire reported:
During a segment at the Oscars, the 57-year-old comedian remarked about how no one was wearing a mask in the theater before he turned his attention to Denzel Washington and praised him for his part in the movie “The Tragedy of MacBeth.” The superstar comedian then spotted Will Smith’s wife in the audience and cracked a joke about how Jada was going to be in the next “G.I. Jane” movie.
“Jada, I love ya,” Rock said. “G.I. Jane 2 movie, can’t wait to see it.”
Smith then got up from his seat and struck Rock in the face.
“Oh wow, wow. Will Smith just smacked the s*** outta me,” Rock said.
Smith then repeatedly shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth!”
“Wow, dude,” Rock replied. “It was a G.I. Jane joke.”