Jada Pinkett Smith calls the Oscar buzz a “holy slap” because of its effect on her marriage.
Jada Pinkett Smith explained that Will Smith’s slap to comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards saved her marriage.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the talk show host and actress revealed that the slap made her realize that she wanted to stay by Will Smith’s side forever. Since a lot has improved in her marriage since the incident, the 52-year-old sees the incident as a “holy slap in the face”:
“After all these years of trying to figure out if I should leave Will, it took this slap in the face to realize that I never want to let him go. Who knows where our relationship would be now if this hadn’t happened? I now call it the ‘holy slap’ because so many positive things came after it.”
Divorce in people’s minds
In October, Jada Pinkett Smith revealed during an interview on NBC that she and Will separated seven years ago after the couple became “exhausted with trying” to maintain their marriage. Although it wasn’t a divorce on paper, it was in their respective heads. The two actors have been married since 1997.
The reason for the slap was Chris Rock’s jokes about Jade Pinkett Smith’s bald head due to alopecia. Will Smith found this less funny than offensive, which is why he asked Rock to stop talking about his wife while the camera was running and then went on stage to slap the comedian in the face.