Willow Smith Addressed Her Father Will Smith’s Infamous Chris Rock Oscars Slap
Will Smith‘s slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars shocked the world, including his own family. But in the months after the incident, his daughter, singer Willow Smith, largely remained out of the fray. In a new interview, however, she expressed her thoughts about the whole situation.
Will Smith has apologized to Chris Rock repeatedly
Will Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor just minutes after slapping Chris Rock on live national TV. He spoke about what happened the day after the Oscars in an Instagram post.
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” he said.
“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be,” he continued. “There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Smith resurfaced on Instagram in July 2022 with another apology, this time in video form.
“I’ve reached out to Chris, and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk, and when he is, he will reach out,” he said. “So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable, and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
Willow Smith gave her thoughts on the situation
In the months since the moment that was broadcast all over the world, Smith’s daughter Willow hasn’t addressed what happened. Instead, she’s largely focused on her music, focusing on releasing her album Coping Mechanism in August 2022.
Despite her father being vilified in the media, she said that she was able to remain level. She opened up about it for the first time in an August 2022 interview with Billboard, saying “[It didn’t] rock me as much as my own internal demons.”
“I see my whole family as being human, and I love and accept them for all their humanness,” she said honestly. “Because of the position that we’re in, our humanness sometimes isn’t accepted, and we’re expected to act in a way that isn’t conducive to a healthy human life and isn’t conducive to being honest.”
Jada Pinkett Smith called for ‘healing’ after the incident
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock because of a joke that he made about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s bald head, which she shaved because of her alopecia. After the Oscars, she shared a post on Instagram that simply read, “This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.”
She alluded to the incident in a June 2022 episode of her Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk. “Considering what I’ve been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories,” Jada said, adding, “Now about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile.”
