It has been two years since the infamous slap when Will Smith attended the Oscars and made headlines for all of the wrong reasons. The moment will be remembered as perhaps the most dramatic in history, thanks, of course, to “The Slap Heard Around the World”.
During the 94th Academy Awards, Will, 55, took to the stage and struck presenter Chris Rock in the face.
It came after the comedian, 59, was announcing the nominees for Best Documentary Feature when he began a short monologue. It was then that Chris made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, comparing her to Demi Moore in the 1997 film, GI Jane. The actress later confirmed that she struggled with alopecia.
“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it, all right?” Chris said.
An unamused Will strode onto the stage and slapped the comic hard across the face before turning around and returning to his seat. He then shouted: “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth!”
Minutes later, Will went on to win the prize for Best Actor for his role in the sports drama, King Richard but the controversial incident resulted in the Hollywood star being punished by the Academy, who branded the move “unacceptable and harmful behaviour”.
Five days after the slap, he sent an official resignation to the Academy, stripping him of his membership to the Oscars awards body.
The Academy then fast-tracked a meeting with the board of governors to decide Will’s fate, deciding to ban the actor from the Oscars and any related Academy events for the next 10 years as punishment.
In July of that year, Will issued an apology video to Chris, which the comedian did not respond to.
Following the slap incident Will’s marriage with his wife Jada, 52, continued to make headlines after The Matrix actress admitted the controversy helped “save their marriage”.
The former Red Table Talk Show host has been married to the I Am Legend star since 1997, but shockingly revealed in October that the two had been quietly separated for seven years.
“After all those years trying to figure out if I would leave Will’s side, it took that slap for me to see I will never leave him,” she told the Daily Mail in an interview last year.
“Who knows where our relationship would be if that hadn’t happened?”
Detailing the struggles within their marriage, Will said in October as he appeared on stage alongside his wife: “We have had a very, very long and tumultuous [relationship]. We call it ‘brutiful.’ It was brutal and beautiful at the same time.”
The couple, who shares children Jaden, 25, and Willow, 23, have also been candid about their ups and downs after Jada admitted to an “entanglement” with singer August Alsina.
In an interview with Angela Yee on YouTube in 2020, the singer claimed he had a relationship with Jada, whom he met through her and Will Smith’s son Jaden, back in 2015.
The actress and her husband sat down to discuss her relationship with August, which she revealed took place years ago, while she and Will were separated.
“Four and a half years ago … I started a friendship with August and we actually became really, really good friends,” she said on an episode of Red Table Talk. “And it all started with him just needing some help, me wanting to help his health, his mental state.”
Despite the “entanglement” Jada and Will have since reconciled.
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