‘The View’ Co-Host Joy Behar Shares Response to Will Smith’s Oscars Verdict

The Oscars organizers recently handed down a verdict on Will Smith, and The View co-host Joy Behar shared her personal response to their ruling. Following Smith’s assault on Chris Rock during the Academy Awards in March, the organization revealed that the King Richard actor is banned from attending the ceremony for 10 years. Reacting to the news during Monday’s episode of The View, Behar said, “Eh. So what? Who wants to go to that anyway?”

The news prompted a lot of varying opinions among The View panelists, with Sara Haines expressing concern that a decade-long ban is unfair. “I actually, when I heard 10, I thought that felt like a lot of time. You talk about someone having growth, and taking time to recognize he did something wrong, it felt like overkill in some ways,” she argued. “I thought maybe he’d be out for three to five years, or not be able to – now he won’t be able to – present next year, and all that felt appropriate. But when I heard a whole decade….”

Offering a stance in support of the move, guest host Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “I actually thought it was appropriate. I think there are like a thousand responses short of physical violence that you could’ve defended your wife. Use your words, like we teach our kids that. It was just such a dark moment that took away from the art that we were celebrating.” Sunny Hostin agreed with Griffin, saying that she felt the disciplinary action was “appropriate for what we saw.”

Following the violent outburst, Smith took to social media to issue an apology. “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 wrote on Instagram. “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. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

Smith added, “Violence in all forms is poisonous and destructive.” The actor also apologized to “the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world,” as well as Venus and Serena Williams and their families, as it was his role in the biopic King Richard about them and their father that landed him an Oscar. “I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us,” Smith concluded. “I am a work in progress.”