Jada Pinkett Smith Was Left ‘Shocked’ by Will Smith Oscars Slap

Jada Pinkett Smith says she was just as “shocked” as everyone else when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.

One reason the incident caught her off guard was because Smith referred to her as his “wife,” something he had not done in “a long time,” the actress told Today.

On Friday, the NBC morning show aired a preview clip from an interview she did with Hoda Kotb to promote her new memoir Worthy, out Oct. 17.

“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,” Pinkett Smith revealed. “I’m like, ‘What is going on right now?'”

Related Story: Chris Rock ‘Had to Go to Counseling’ After Will Smith Oscars Slap

The incident happened while Rock presented an award at the ceremony. He told a joke about her shaved head — which she says is a result of hair loss from alopecia. Smith walked on stage, slapped Rock, and shouted: “Keep my wife’s name out of your fu–ng mouth!”

The cameras caught Pinkett Smith rolling her eyes when the comedian told the joke.

“I did that eye roll not so much for me, and I think this is really important, but the fact that there could be a jab at alopecia,” the Red Table Talk host told Kotb.

Pinkett Smith also said Rock apologized for his comments moments after the incident, but she was more concerned about her husband, who won an Oscar that night for his role in King Richard.

“I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know what’s going on,” she explained in the interview.

Will Smith later issued an apology, saying he was “deeply remorseful” for slapping Rock. “Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work,” Smith said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Today played a clip showing Pinkett Smith confirming she and Smith have lived “completely separate lives” for seven years.

“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, adding that they have no plans to divorce.

Pinkett Smith, 52 and Smith, 55, are parents to two children — Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22. She also helped raise Will’s son Trey, 30, from a previous marriage.

You can watch the clip from Hoda Kotb’s interview with Jada Pinkett Smith here. The full interview airs Friday, on Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.