Hollywood royalty Will Smith gave his fellow actor Chris Rock an open-hand slap in the face because the latter made a joke about Smith’s wife. Read about what happened and Jada Pinkett-Smith’s battle with alopecia.
In this article, you’ll read:
- Will Smith’s line after hitting co-actor Chris Rock
- Alopecia – Jada Pinkett Smith’s battle with the autoimmune disorder
- What is alopecia?
No Oscar awards show is the same. There’s always something new to look forward to, each year more scandalous than the last.
This year, everybody’s talking about Will Smith’s reaction to Chris Rock’s joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock was in the middle of presenting the Best Documentary award when he began roasting some of the nominees. After mentioning Will, said of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, “Jada, I love you. GI Jane II, can’t wait to see it.”
The joke got a lot of laughs, and Smith was even focused on the camera, still in high spirits. Then the audience was surprised when Will started walking up on stage and gave his co-actor an open-handed slap in the face then walked away again.
To this, Chris said, “Oh wow. Will Smith just smacked the s*** out of me.”
Will seemingly took offence when Chris poked fun at his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith’s shaven-headed look. He was even heard shouting vulgarities about it from his seat.
“Take my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth,” he said.
Will Smith: ‘Love will make you do crazy things.”
After the incident, some of their friends in the industry tried to go between the two actors and keep the peace. Sean Combs, while on stage to introduce a tribute to The Godfather, said,
“Will and Chris, we’re going to solve that like family at the Gold party.”
Will Smith, later on, won the award for Best Actor (for the movie King Richard). In his acceptance speech, he said,
“Love will make you do crazy things,” then apologised to the Academy and his fellow nominees but not to Rock. “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” he said. “I hope the Academy invites me back,” he finished before going back to his seat.
Meanwhile, the organisers of the Oscar ceremony party tweeted, “The Academy does not condone violence of any form.”
Image source: Shutterstock
Jada Pinkett Smith’s struggle with alopecia
If you’re wondering why Will Smith would do that with the whole world watching, it’s because the joke, that was meant at the expense of his wife Jada, was very personal to the couple.
In 2018, Jada revealed that she has been suffering from hair loss due to the autoimmune disorder alopecia that impacts the hair follicles, resulting in both bald spots and hair loss.
“I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, am I going bald?” she said. “It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking in fear. That’s why I cut my hair, and why I continue to cut it,” she added.
Last July, Jada debuted her shaved hairstyle because even though she was already taking steroids to mitigate the hairloss at some point, she realised that it was not helping.
In December 2021, she shared an Instagram video talking about her struggle with alopecia.
“Now at this point, I can only laugh. Y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. Look at that,” she said
“So it just showed up like that and this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide. So I thought I’d just share it so y’all are not asking any questions,” she added.
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