Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith is seemingly trying to remain silent about the slap heard ’round the world.
In an interview with CBS Mornings, the actress discussed her new memoir Worthy, and once again described her reaction to the infamous confrontation between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
“That’s a really deep subject. I think you’ve gotta be really careful about the ‘why,'” Pinkett Smith said. “That’s Will’s story to tell. Not mine. So what I will say is that being there with him that night, what I did know, was that I might not have walked in there as his wife, but I left that night as his wife. And as I sit here today, I am going to be by his side, always,” she continued, alluding to the recent revelation that she and Smith have been separated since 2016.
During the award ceremony for Best Documentary Feature, there was a controversial exchange of words between Rock and Pinkett Smith. Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, comparing it to Demi Moore’s in G.I. Jane. Pinkett Smith initially thought it was just a comedy sketch until Will started walking back to his chair, and she realized it was not a skit.
She later revealed that she assumed the incident was just a joke for the show. “I thought, ‘This is a skit,'” Pinkett Smith told PEOPLE last month. “I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him.'”
Pinkett Smith and Rock co-starred in three Madagascar films between 2005 and 2012. She previously revealed to PEOPLE that the comedian had once asked her out on a date amid rumors that she and Smith were divorcing. “He called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out,'” she recalled. “I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumors.'” She said an “appalled” Rock “profusely apologized and that was that.”
