Jada Pinkett Smith has addressed her husband Will Smith’s Oscar slap last year for the first time in a new interview.
Speaking to People, Jada addressed the incident at the 2022 Oscars where her husband Will slapped Chris Rock onstage, explaining how she initially thought it was a “skit”.
“I was like, ‘there’s no way that Will hit him,’” she said. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realised it wasn’t a skit.”
Following the incident, Will apologised on numerous occasions and resigned from the Academy. He was later banned from all Academy events for 10 years.
After that, Jada remembers that the first words Smith said to her were: “Are you okay?”
Jada has also revealed she’s been secretly separated from Will for the past seven years.
Ahead of her upcoming memoir Worthy, Jada, who has been married to Will since 1997, shared that the couple have been living separately since 2016 in an interview with NBC’s Today.
Speaking about the reason behind the split, Jada said: “I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
She explained that they had considered divorcing but she hasn’t been able to go through with it, adding: “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through… whatever. I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
Jada and Will have two children together, Jaden and Willow Smith. Will also has a son, Trey, from his previous marriage with ex-wife Sheree Zampino.