Why Did Will Smith Slap Chris Rock at the Oscars?

While promoting the release of her memoir, “Worthy,” Pinkett Smith opened up to People about her past issues with Rock, admitting that she may have contributed to some of the misunderstandings between them. “I think that there might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I as far as the 2016 Oscars,” she said, referring to her boycotting the event and reportedly asking Rock to drop his hosting gig because of a lack of diversity among its nominees that year. “I think that he might’ve taken offense, which I meant no harm in offending. That wasn’t my intention. But I do think that there’s a big misunderstanding there.”

Pinkett Smith admitted to “not really recognizing the level of pressure he might’ve been under” at the time, adding, “I probably should have called him and gone, ‘Hey, are you okay? And just know that although I’m speaking out about the Oscars, I do wish you the best and I just want you to know that,’ me taking the time to have called him and said that, just to touch base. But his feelings might’ve been hurt.”

Pinkett Smith thought they had moved past their issues in 2016, however, after Rock called her. “He apologized and I apologized to him as well,” she said. “So I actually thought that we were good, that the hatchet was buried between us. And we hadn’t talked since then, until 2022 came.”

Pinkett Smith revealed that while Rock immediately came to talk to her after Smith slapped him at the 2022 Oscars, she saw the issue as being entirely between her husband and Rock. “Chris came down to the end of the stage and tried to apologize to me,” she recounted. “He said, ‘I didn’t mean you any harm.’ I said, ‘I can’t talk about this now, Chris. This is some old sh*t.’ I thought this was [about] the Oscar 2016 and . . . their stuff that they had before I even came into the picture in the late ’80s. I’ve got to leave that to Will and Chris to talk about, but they got their stuff for sure.”

One thing that might be lingering between Rock and Smith: the new detail that Rock once asked Pinkett Smith out on a date. “I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce. And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce,” she shared. “So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’ And 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.’ He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”