Jada Pinkett Smith reveals what she was thinking right after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock
Chris Rock #ChrisRock
Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Rock all used to be close — that is, until March 27, 2022, when Smith slapped Rock during the 94th Academy Awards, creating a public spectacle that left social media buzzing about the trio for months.
Rock was presenting an award that night when he made a joke about Pinkett Smith, whose head is shaved due to the autoimmune condition alopecia, leading Smith to walk up to the stage and slap Rock in the face on live TV.
Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Rock during 1999 MTV Music Awards Party in NYC.Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic
Smith returned to his seat and then shouted an expletive, which was censored for U.S. audiences, and told Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth.” After the incident, Rock regained composure, and commented, “That was the greatest night in the history of television,” before presenting the award for best documentary feature.
Will Smith has since apologized for the slap, and Jada Pinkett Smith addressed the incident in an interview with People published Oct. 11 saying she initially thought the incident was a bit.
“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.”
The shocking incident is part of Rock and Smith’s history, which dates back to their first time working together in the ‘90s. Read on for the context surrounding the altercation, and a timeline of how the three actors came to know each other.
1995: Chris Rock appears on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’
Chris Rock makes a cameo appearance in the sixth and final season of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” the sitcom and pop culture phenomenon that launched Smith’s career.
Rock played a comedian named Maurice Perry and the comedian’s sister Jasmine, whom Will takes on a date as a favor for his cousin Hilary.
1997: Chris Rock mocks Jada Pinkett Smith’s attendance at the Million Woman March
During the second season of his late-night talk show “The Chris Rock Show,” which ran on HBO, Rock made fun of Pinkett Smith’s speech at the Million Woman March, an event that advocated for African-American women in the United States and was led by major figures like Maxine Waters. The clip was resurfaced by The Daily Beast.
Rock made fun of the event in general before turning his attention to Pinkett Smith, airing an edited version of her speech. In the edited clip, Pinkett Smith appears to shout song lyrics. Her full speech is available online.
1999: Will Smith and Chris Rock appear in a mockumentary together
The duo appeared in a half-hour Spike Jonze mockumentary about a community dance group, along with other ‘90s celebrities like Madonna, Janeane Garofalo, Sofia Coppola, Fatboy Slim and Regis Philbin.
The shared acting credit may be inadvertent: The mockumentary partially took place at the VMAs and captured celebrities’ reactions.
2005: Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith work together on the ‘Madagascar’ movies
Jada Pinkett-Smith, Chris Rock and Will Smith during Nickelodeon’s 18th Annual Kids Choice Awards in Los Angeles in 2005.Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic
Rock and Pinkett Smith lent their voices to zoo animal escapees in the “Madagascar” movie series. Rock played Marty the zebra; Pinkett Smith was Gloria the hippo.
They went on to make a trilogy together: “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” came out in 2008, and “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” came out in 2012.
2012: Chris Rock says his kids ‘listen to’ the Smiths’ kids
During a promo tour for the third “Madagascar” movie, Rock appeared to bond with Pinkett Smith over her children — Willow and Jaden Smith — and their music careers.
“Hey, my kids listen to your kids!” Rock told Smith, per Fuse. “‘21st Century Girl’? Oh, my God,” he said, referring to Willow Smith’s 2011 song.
2009: Chris Rock says ‘there’s no Will Smith jokes’
In a 2009 CNN interview, Rock identified a few people that he couldn’t joke about. Among them? Smith.
“(Obama’s) just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There’s no Will Smith jokes. There’s no Brad Pitt jokes,” he said.
“You know, what are you going to say? ‘Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Aniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You’re such a loser.’”
2016: Chris Rock jokes about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in his Oscars monologue
Though Rock said he couldn’t joke about Smith in 2009, he changed his tune in 2016, when he hosted the Oscars and made cracks at the couple.
That year, Pinkett Smith and Smith chose to boycott the ceremony, along with creators like Spike Lee, citing a lack of diversity among the nominees.
“Jada said she’s not coming, protest. I was like, ‘Isn’t she on a TV show?’ Jada’s going to boycott the Oscars? Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!” Rock said.
Rock then said Pinkett Smith was upset her husband didn’t receive a nomination for his work in “Concussion.”
“It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. You’re right. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for ‘Wild Wild West,’ OK?” he said, referencing one of Smith’s biggest flops.
2016: Jada Pinkett Smith responds to Chris Rock’s Oscars speech
As for whether these jokes sowed discontent between Rock and Smith and Pinkett Smith? In her response at the time, Pinkett Smith appeared to be nonplussed.
“It comes with the territory,” she told paparazzi in the airport, per ET Online. “We got to keep it moving, there’s a lot of stuff we got to handle, a lot of stuff in our world right now. We got to keep it moving.”
2016: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith separate
Pinkett Smith revealed in an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Hoda Kotb that she and her husband separated in 2016, nearly 20 years after they married in 1997, according to a preview clip of the interview aired on Oct. 11, 2023.
“Why it fractured… that — that’s a lot of things … By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she said.
Pinkett Smith said she has considered a legal divorce, but she has not been able to go through with it.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through … whatever,” she said. “I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
March 2022: Chris Rock is slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars
It was a moment that’ll be cemented in pop culture history. When Rock appeared onstage at the 94th Academy Awards to present the award for best documentary feature, he cracked a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.
Will Smith, who was sitting at the front of the venue with his wife, then ascended the stage and struck Rock across the face on live television.
“Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth,” Smith had shouted when he returned to his seat. After the incident, Rock commented, “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”
March 2022: Will Smith apologizes for the slap
The day after the Oscars ceremony, Smith publicly apologized to Rock for the incident.
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” he said in a statement on Instagram March 28, 2022.
“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness,” he continued.
Smith also apologized to the Academy, the producers of the show, the attendees and those who watched the show around the world, in addition to those who worked on “King Richard,” the film Smith won the best actor Oscar for shortly after the slap.
He concluded: “I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us.”
During Pinkett Smith’s October 2023 interview with People, she revealed the first thing she said to Smith after the slap.
“Are you OK?” she recalled asking her husband.
March and July 2022: Rock addresses the slap during his comedy tour
Rock briefly addressed the slap three days after the ceremony to a sold out crowd in Boston for the opening show of his “Ego Death World Tour.”
“How was your weekend?” he asked with a wink. “I don’t have a bunch of s— about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend.”
“I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point, I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny,” he added.
Rock also spoke out about the slap on July 24, 2022, while at a comedy show in Holmdel, New Jersey, according to Variety.
“Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” he said. “I’m not a victim. Yeah, that s— hurt, motherf—–. But I shook that s— off and went to work the next day. I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut.”
April 2022: Smith is banned from the film academy
In the days after the incident, Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, and the organization issued a ban against the actor from all Academy events for 10 years.
June 2022: Jada Pinkett Smith addresses the slap on ‘Red Table Talk’
On June 3, 2022, Pinkett Smith hosted an episode of her Facebook Live series “Red Table Talk” that shined a light on those who have alopecia. At the top of the episode, she said spoke candidly about the slap.
“Now about Oscars night,” she said, “my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile. The state of the world today, we need them both. And we all actually need one another more than ever. Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together. Thank you for listening.”
July 2022: Will Smith posts a video addressing the slap
Smith then addressed the slap again in an in-depth video posted on Instagram on July 29, 2022, where he answered questions about the incident and explained why he didn’t apologize during his acceptance speech for his best actor award.
“I was fogged out by that point,” Smith said. “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.”
In the post, Smith also dispelled rumors that Pinkett Smith asked him to do something after the joke, saying he “made a choice on my own,” though noting: “It’s like, ‘I’m sorry’ really isn’t sufficient.”
March 2023: Chris Rock responds to the slap in his live stand-up special
As promised, Rock was finally ready to talk about what happened at the 2022 Oscars during Netflix’s first-ever live stand-up special, “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” which aired March 4.
“I got smacked at the f—ing Oscars by this motherf—–, and people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts,” he told the crowd. “I took that hit like Pacquiao,” he said.
He then said he thinks Smith practices “selective outrage.”
“Everybody who really knows, knows that I had nothing to do with that s—. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements,’” he said, referring to the relationship Jada Pinkett Smith said she had with singer August Alsina when separated from Will Smith.
“She hurt him way more than he hurt me. Everybody in the world called him a b—-. I tried to call the motherf—–, I tried to call that man and give him my condolences, he didn’t pick up for me,” he said. “Everybody called him a b—-. And who does he hit? Me.”
Rock went on to say he has loved and rooted for Smith his whole life. “And now I watch ‘Emancipation’ just so I could watch him get whooped,” he added.
October 2023: Jada Pinkett Smith speaks out ahead of her memoir’s release
The actor and talk show host sat down with Hoda in her hometown of Baltimore to discuss her marriage and more, which will air in an upcoming NBC News primetime special Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
Pinkett Smith discloses the full extent of her separation from Smith and more in her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” out Oct. 17.