Jada Pinkett Smith is sharing her immediate thoughts after her husband, Will Smith, slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars in an NBC News special, airing tonight. Ahead of the release of her new memoir, Worthy, out October 17, the Red Table Talk host gave Hoda Kotb a play-by-play of her reaction during the chaotic televised moment, including her surprise that Smith called her his “wife.”
Viewers of the infamous ceremony will remember that, once Smith sat back down at his table, he told Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your motherfucking mouth.” However, Pinkett Smith says she was stunned hearing him referring to her as his spouse, as the two were separated at the time.
“I’m really shocked because, mind you, I’m not there,” the actress said in a preview of the conversation. “We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time. I’m like, ‘What is going on right now?’”
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In an interview with People on Wednesday, Pinkett Smith revealed that she and Smith, who wed in 1997, had been separated for six years prior to the Oscars incident. She also told the publication that, like many people watching, she initially thought the slap was “a skit.”
Pinkett Smith added that she was “really worried” for Smith during the ceremony and also revealed that Rock leaned over the stage afterwards to tell her that he “meant no harm.”
“I’m just out of it because I’m really worried about Will,” the actress recalled. “And Will’s still talking because now he’s mad that Chris is still talking to me. And I’m like, ‘Chris, this is about some old shit.’ That’s all I could think to say, right? I couldn’t really take in his apology.”
She also has a theory about the sexist narratives that arose from the incident—specifically, social media blaming her for inciting Smith’s behavior.
“My honest opinion about that narrative is that it had more to do with the false narrative that I helped to create on The Red Table,” she said, referring to a 2020 episode of the former Facebook Watch show where she admitted to having an extramarital “entanglement” with R&B singer August Alsina.
“So ‘Poor Will…’,” Kotb interjected.
“‘...Because of the adulterous wife, who forced him to go to the table and sit there,’ you know what I mean?” Pinkett Smith added. “‘And now, look what she’s done. She has the power with an eye roll to make him go up there and slap somebody onstage.’”
The full interview airs tonight at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.
