Published by Cel Manero from Global One Media, Inc.
Jada Pinkett Smith has at last disclosed what Chris Rock said to her in a private conversation following the on-stage incident at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, where actor Will Smith slapped Rock over a joke about her shaved head.
In an interview on the “Today” show on Friday, the 52-year-old actress shared that right after the incident, while the audience’s attention was on the nominees for Best Documentary Feature, Rock leaned over the stage to offer his apology.
“And Chris turns to me and says, ‘Jada, I didn’t mean any harm,'” Smith recounted to the host. “At that point, I was quite disoriented because my primary concern was Will. Will was still speaking, but he was upset because Chris was conversing with me.”
She mentioned that she responded to the comedian with, “‘Chris, this is about some old stuff,'” and then continued, saying, “That’s all I could come up with at the moment. I wasn’t able to fully absorb his apology.”
Jada mentioned that she believed some people held her responsible for the Oscars incident because she had previously publicly discussed her “entanglement” with singer August Alsina in 2020. She had claimed it happened during a brief separation from her husband, Will Smith. However, she recently revealed that the couple has been “separated” since 2016.
In a People magazine interview earlier this week, the “Girls Trip” star disclosed that Chris Rock had asked her out on a date during one of the times when she and Will were in the media spotlight due to divorce rumors. This additional context sheds light on the situation that unfolded at the Oscars.
“I think every summer, there would be these reports that Will and I were on the verge of getting a divorce,” Pinkett Smith explained. “And during a particular summer, Chris, he believed that we were indeed going through a divorce.”
“So he called me and essentially said, ‘I’d like to take you out,'” she recounted. “And I was a bit surprised, asking, ‘What do you mean?’ He responded, ‘Aren’t you and Will in the process of getting a divorce?’ I replied, ‘No, Chris, those are just rumors.’ He was taken aback. He sincerely apologized, and that was the end of it.”
