Kit Roberts
Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about how she was blamed for the infamous Oscars slap.
The comments come after a series of bombshell interviews in which Jada revealed she and Will have been separated for seven years and that Chris Rock asked her out on a date amid rumors she and Will were getting a divorce.
The 2022 Oscars incident saw Will Smith walk up to the stage where Rock was hosting the Oscars and slap him hard in the face.
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Smith had previously stated that his wife had 'nothing to do' with the slap, which occurred after Rock made jokes about Pinkett Smith's alopecia.
In one of many apology videos posted to social media, he explained that Pinkett Smith had not told him to do anything, but he had made the decision himself.
He said in a video at the time: "It's like… 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."
For her part, Pinkett Smith explained that at first she had believed that the slap had all been part of the joke, and didn't realise it was real.
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.”
The actor went on to reveal that the first words Smith had said to her when they were alone together after the Oscars had been 'are you okay?'
Now, Pinkett Smith has reflected on just how far the story around the infamous incident went, including how a false narrative that she encouraged had him was somehow brought into it.
She told People: "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.
"And I think that when we just look at human nature... when you look at the breadcrumbs, people need something to blame.
"And so people not knowing what was happening behind the scenes, I surely wasn't surprised that I got blamed.
"But I understood that that's just the human nature of it all."
Smith had won best actor at the awards, but was subsequently given a ten year ban from attending any event by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which includes the Oscars.
The pair have been married for more than twenty years, but it has recently emerged that they have been separated for the last seven years.