Jada Pinkett Smith revealed to People magazine that she hasn’t spoken to Chris Rock since the night of the 2022 Oscars, when Will Smith punched Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about Jada’s baldness onstage had. Rock’s joke caused controversy because of Jada’s alopecia.
“No, I haven’t spoken to Chris…”[Do I have] Would you like to talk to Chris? Here is my wish: I just hope that all misunderstandings in this regard can be cleared up and that there can be peace,” Jada told the publication.
Was she offended by Rock’s joke? “I mean, that’s what comedians do,” Jada said. “All I have to say is that I’m not really here to judge how people choose to express themselves and express their art. I have to admit that I definitely had my feelings hurt several times. Chris really hurt my feelings. But at the end of the day, being in the spotlight comes with the territory.”
While Chris Rock and Jada haven’t spoken since the night of the 2022 Oscars, Jada revealed for the first time that Rock left the stage and walked towards her immediately after the slap.
“Chris came down at the end of the stage and tried to apologize to me,” Jada said. “He said, ‘I didn’t mean any harm to you.’ I said, ‘I can’t talk about that now, Chris.’ That’s old shit.’ I thought that was it [about] the 2016 Oscar and… their stuff that they had before I even came on the scene in the late 80s. I’ll have to let Will and Chris talk about that, but they definitely have their stuff.”
For Jada, the 2016 Academy Awards seemed to be a complement to the 2022 Academy Awards. In 2016, Jada publicly protested the Academy Awards amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, in which the awards failed to nominate a single person of color in the four acting categories. Rock was the host this year (and even made a Jada protest joke in his monologue), and Jada said he may have been offended by her comments against the ceremony.
“There may be some misunderstanding between Chris and me regarding the 2016 Oscars. I think he may have taken offense, which I didn’t mean in a bad way,” Jada said. “That was not my intention. But I think there’s a big misunderstanding.”
“I probably should have called him and said, ‘Hey, are you OK?’ And know that even though I’m talking about the Oscars, I wish you the best and want you to know that,” Jada added, noting that she should have taken the time to talk to him in to get in touch since he was host. “His feelings may have been hurt.”
The two spoke after the 2016 Oscars. “He apologized and I apologized to him too,” Jada said. “So I actually thought that we were good, that the hatchet was buried between us. And we hadn’t spoken since then until 2022 came.”
Jada also revealed that Rock once asked her out while rumors were circulating about her possible divorce from Will.
“I think every summer all the reports came out that Will and I were getting a divorce,” Jada said. “And that summer, Chris thought we were getting a divorce. So he called me and basically said, “I’d like to take you out.” And I said, “What do you think?” He said, “Well, aren’t you and Will getting divorced?” I said, “No. “Chris, these are just rumors.” He was horrified. And he apologized profusely and that was it.”
Jada and Will are not divorced, but she recently revealed that they have been secretly separated for seven years. Six of those years predated the Oscar slap, which Jada initially thought was a skit.
“I thought, ‘This is a skit,'” Jada said. “I thought, ‘There’s no way Will can beat him.’ It wasn’t until Will went back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.”
Jada’s new memoir, Worthy, will be released on October 17th.