Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that Chris Rock, of the infamous Oscar slap, asked her out on a date while she was allegedly separated from Will Smith.
Jada is set to release a new book where she speaks further about her life. On Wednesday, October 11, she said that she had been separated from Will for the last seven years.
Pinkett Smith revealed in an exclusive interview with TODAY's Hoda Kotb that she and her husband separated in 2016, nearly 20 years after they married in 1997, according to a preview clip of the interview aired on Oct. 11, 2023.
“Why it fractured... that — that’s a lot of things ... By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she said.
Pinkett Smith said she has considered a legal divorce, but she has not been able to go through with it.
She is now opening up about her relationship with Chris Rock, a friend of Will Smith. Will and Chris have been friends since the 1990's, and even worked together on the Fresh Princ eOf Bel Air.
Explaining to PEOPLE, she says: “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. 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 rumours.’ He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”
In 2022 during the Oscars, Smith slapped Rock for ridiculing his wife, who had shaved her head due to autoimmune condition alopecia. The trio went viral worldwide.
Smith returned to his seat and then shouted an expletive, which was censored for U.S. audiences, and told Rock, "Keep my wife's name out your f---ing mouth." After the incident, Rock regained composure, and commented,
"That was the greatest night in the history of television," before presenting the award for best documentary feature.
Will Smith has since apologized for the slap, and Jada Pinkett Smith addressed the incident in an interview with People published on Oct. 11 saying she initially thought the incident was a bit.
“I thought, ‘This is a skit,’” 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.”
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