Will Smith shocked America when he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars and uttered the now-infamous line in defense of Jada Pinkett Smith: “Don’t fucking say my wife’s name.” .
But Jada was surprised for a different reason, because it had been a while since Will had called her “wife.”
“First of all, I was really shocked because mind you, I wasn’t there. We hadn’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” Jada told Hoda Kotb on the NBC News Primetime Special , while promoting her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” which will be released on October 17. Is it ongoing now? Don’t mention my wife’s name? I was really worried about Will because I didn’t know what was going on. ”
At the 2022 Oscars, Will stormed the stage and punched Rock after comedian Rock made a joke about Jada’s bald head. Jada, who has alopecia, rolled her eyes after Rock jokingly called her “GI Jane.”
“I’m not rolling my eyes for myself — I think it’s really important — but the truth is, it might have something to do with hair loss,” Jada tells Kotb in a new clip.
After the slap, Weir received the Academy Award for Best Actor and gave a rousing five-minute speech. He later resigned from the Academy amid backlash over the slap, and the Academy subsequently banned Weill from the Academy and banned him from events such as the Oscars for ten years.
Earlier this week, Jada spoke about the Oscar slapping for the first time, telling People she thought it was a “skit” when Will took to the stage to confront Rock. She also revealed that she and Will had been separated for six years at that time.
“We’re still figuring it out,” Jada told People of the status of her marriage to Will. “We’ve been doing some really hard work together. We just love each other deeply and we’ll figure out what that looks like for us.”
