Jada Pinkett Smith Reflects on Public Backlash After Will Smith's Oscars Slap

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about the public's reaction to her following the shocking incident at the 2022 Academy Awards when her estranged husband, Will Smith, slapped Chris Rock during the ceremony.

In a recent interview with People magazine, Jada expressed her frustration, saying, "It was ridiculous how far it escalated."

The 52-year-old actress and talk show host, who recently revealed that she and Will had been separated for seven years, discussed the false accusations of infidelity that stemmed from her admission in 2020 of having a 'relationship' with August Alsina. These misconceptions made her an easy target for blame in the wake of the on-stage slap by Chris Rock.

She explained, "But I also understood at the same time. Considering the false narrative that I had cheated on Will or I was like some adulteress, Will had never done that before." Jada acknowledged that people often look for someone to blame when they lack the full story. She added, "I understood that that's just the nature of human behavior."

Will Smith has consistently maintained that Jada bore no responsibility for his actions during the controversial incident at the Oscars. He has apologized publicly and affirmed that she had no involvement in his decision to confront Chris Rock over a joke.  

In a video from July 2022, Will explicitly stated that Jada did not influence his response to Chris's comment. He asserted, "I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it. I'm sorry, babe. I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I've brought on all of us."

Jada first admitted her involvement with August Alsina, who is 21 years her junior, during a pivotal episode of her Red Table Talk series, featuring her husband. Although she acknowledged the relationship, she clarified that it did not qualify as an affair, and she asserted that Will had not approved of it since they were separated at the time. August, however, contradicted Jada's account by claiming that Will had sanctioned the relationship.

In the People interview, Jada revealed her initial reaction to Will's on-stage actions. She thought it might have been a prearranged skit kept secret for maximum shock value. It was only when she saw her husband's expression afterward that she realized it was not part of the plan. 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."

Jada's immediate concern was Will's well-being, and her first words to him after the show were, "Are you OK?"

The interview also touched on Jada's connection with Chris Rock. The two had tense interactions following the 2016 Academy Awards when Jada called for the show's cancellation amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. In a Netflix comedy special earlier this year, Chris claimed that Jada had urged him to withdraw from the gig in solidarity with protests over the lack of Black nominees. Jada admitted that she didn't fully grasp the pressure Chris was under at the time and said she should have reached out to him to clarify her intentions.

She recalled that Chris approached her shortly after the slap and the awards presentation to apologize, telling her, "I didn't mean you any harm." However, she cut him off, assuming he was referring to past tensions between her and Will dating back to the 2016 show and issues going back to the 1980s, rather than the recent slap witnessed by viewers worldwide. As a result, she hasn't spoken to him since that moment at the 2022 Oscars.