Jada Pinkett Smith Says She Was Blamed For The Slap Because She “Helped Create” A “False Narrative” That She Was An “Adulterous Wife”

By Radhamely De Leon
Published Oct. 13, 2023, 12:32 p.m. ET

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Hoda Kotb has unveiled another clip from her exclusive interview with Jada Pinkett Smith, in which the actress detailed every second of that infamous Oscars slap for the very first time.

In the interview, which was shared on The Today Show, Pinkett Smith expressed that she felt confused and overwhelmed when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage because they had already been separated for six years by that time.

“First of all, I’m really shocked because, mind you, I’m not there. We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time, but I’m like what is going on now?” she said. “Now I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know whats going on.”

She also revealed that, after the incident, Rock approached her to apologize.

“Chris looks to me [and says], ‘Jada, I meant no harm,'” she recalled. “Now, I’m just out of it because I’m really worried about Will. And Will’s still talking because now he’s mad Chris is talking to me.” She said she “couldn’t really take in his apology,” but she responded, “‘Chris, this is about some old shit,’ that’s all I can think to say.”

Pinkett Smith has said multiple times that she believed the confrontation partially stemmed from some “bad blood” Rock and Smith had before she and Smith got married.

She later agreed when Kotb noted how “unusual” it seemed at the time for Smith “to do something so insane.”

“Absolutely,” Pinkett Smith said. “It’s not him, whatsoever.”

But the interview took an interesting turn when Kotb tied the Oscars incident to another moment when the Smiths found themselves in the headlines, namely when Pinkett Smith came forward about her “entanglement” with singer August Alsina in 2022. The public was still under the impression that the actors were married at the time, making her relationship with Alsina seem like an affair, despite the singer claiming he received Smith’s “blessing.”

Kotb pointed out that Pinkett Smith was made out to be “the bad guy” after the incident at the Oscars. As Kotb put it, “the narrative” became, “look what Jada made him do. Jada rolled her eyes, and look what he did, he ran up there and hit Chris. Poor Will.”

The actress responded with a rather candid confession and look back on her time on Red Table Talk, when Smith joined his family on the show to clear the air after news broke of the Alsina “entanglement.” Though they had secretly been separated for years by that point, to many, it looked like Smith was excusing his wife’s affair.

“My honest opinion about that is that narrative had more to do with the false narrative that I helped to create on the Red Table. The adulterous wife who forced him to go to the table and sit there and now look at what she’s done,” she said. “She has the power with an eye roll to make him go up and slap somebody on stage.” 

After the clip ended, Kotb told her fellow Today Show hosts that, though Smith and his wife were separated at the time, he brought Pinkett Smith to the Oscars “because he thought this was his crowning moment in Hollywood.”

She also teased that the actress had even more to share about the incident during their exclusive interview, which airs on Oct. 13 at 8/7c on NBC.

Pinkett Smith is also scheduled to appear on The Today Show on Monday, Oct. 16.