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Jada Pinkett Smith addresses her husband's assault of Chris Rock on the latest episode of "Red Table Talk." |
Over two months after actor Will Smith seemingly had a flashback to his Oscar-nominated role as Muhammad Ali, taking to the stage mid-segment to deliver a blow to host Chris Rock, his wife is finally speaking out about the incident, which was sparked by a joke about her hair.
Actress and singer Jada Pinkett Smith, best known for her roles in "The Matrix" series of movies and "Girls Trip", used the opening seconds of "Red Table Talk" to address the March 27
assault on the comedian by her husband.
"Now, about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity
to heal, talk this out, and reconcile," Pinkett Smith said, referring to the drama that played out after Smith took a bald joke by Rock as a character made famous by Demi Moore as a sleight toward his wife, who suffers from alopecia areata and was sporting a short shorn hairdo.
She added, "The state of the world today, we need them both, and we all actually need one another more than ever. Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together."
The drama began when Rock said "Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it," referring to the 1997 film in which Demi Moore sported a buzzcut, during his monologue. Smith walked briskly on the stage and delivered a hard slap that shook the comedian before returning to his seat and yelling, "Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth."
Celebrity-watchers had been waiting to hear from Pinkett Smith since the "slap seen around the world." Smith, who avoided charges and later returned to the stage to win his first Academy Award for his portrayal of tennis family patriarch Richard Williams in the movie "King Richard," was later banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
Previously, Pinkett Smith had shared an Instagram post, many deduced was about the dustup, which said, "This is a season for healing and I’m here for it," but her comments to open the fifth season of her popular Facebook Watch advice show, hosted along with her daughter Willow and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, was her first time to address the matter directly.
Pinkett Smith followed up the statement with a show addressing alopecia. Her guests included the mother of 12-year-old, Rio Allred, a girl who was bullied over her hair loss and died by suicide just weeks before the melee at the Oscars, and a physician who explained the different types of the disorder.
