Jada Pinkett Smith Says She Thought Will Smith’s Oscars Slap Was a Skit

The moment when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the 2022 Oscars was as surreal for Jada Pinkett Smith as anyone else. In a new interview with PEOPLE, Jada addressed the incident more directly than ever before, including a painstaking account of her flurry of thoughts as it was happening. She said that at first, “I thought it was a skit.”

“I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him.’ It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit,” Jada recalled. This lines up with her reaction on live TV pretty clearly. Fans have made a lot of inferences based on Jada’s facial expressions from that night. She seemed upset when Rock made a joke about her baldness, but also not happy with Will for inciting violence on live TV.

For those that need a refresher, Jada went to the 94th Academy Awards ceremony bald after publicly revealing she has Alopecia. Rock didn’t know that when he cracked a joke on stage, comparing Jada to the 1990s action hero G.I. Jane. Will walked up on stage and slapped Rock before yelling “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.” The rest of the show went on without interruption, but afterwards Will was banned from the Oscars for 10 years as punishment.

The aftermath of the slap was one of the most surreal parts as viewers and attendees tried to discern what was going on. Jada told PEOPLE that the first thing she said to Will afterwards was: “Are you OK?” She said: “I’m going to be by his side, but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.”

Will later apologized publicly to Rock – and to viewers for the shock they experienced in that moment. He said “there are many nuances and complexities” behind his outburst, admitting: “I was going through something that night.” Jada may have shed some light on those hardships on Wednesday in an interview with Today.

Jada revealed that she and Will have actually been separated since 2016. They avoided the publicity fallout from their breakup by keeping it quiet, but she now reveals that they have been living separately since 2016. She also acknowledged that there have been plenty of rumors about her relationship status with Will over the years, and she said that at some point in the past, Rock actually heard that they were divorcing and called to ask Jada out on a date.

“I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce,” she told PEOPLE. “And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce. So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumors.’ He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”

Presumably, fans will get a more complete version of Jada’s take on all this in her memoir, Worthy. The book will be available in print, digital and audiobook formats on Oct. 17.