Jada Pinkett, the woman at the vortex of the Oscars Slapgate controversy, has shared her thoughts in a succinct Instagram post, her first since husband Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock for a joke he made at Jada's expense. "This is a season for healing and I'm here for it," read Jada's post, to which she appended the heart and folded hands emojis in the caption. She did not refer to "the slap seen around the word," as Will Smith's altercation with Chris Rock is being called – but she didn't have to.
See Jada Pinkett's post here:
Jada Pinkett's shorn head – she suffers from hair loss caused by alopecia - was the subject of an unscripted joke Oscar presenter Chris Rock made as he came on. It's not clear if he knew about her battle with alopecia, which she revealed in 2018. "Jada, I love you, can't wait for GI Jane 2," he quipped, referring to the 90s film in which Demi Moore sports a buzzcut as a Navy SEAL. On camera, Will Smith laughed as his wife rolled her eyes. Moments later, he marched up to Chris and hit him on a live broadcast being watched globally. Returning to his seat, Will yelled, "Keep my wife's name out of your f*****g mouth."
Minutes later, Will Smith won Best Actor and use his speech to deliver a tearful, rambling apology – just not to the man he hit. "I want to apologize to the Academy," he said, adding that "Love will make you do crazy things." He later posed for pictures with his family and then attended the Vanity Fair after party where he danced and posed for selfies.
In an Instagram post shared after the above events, Will Smith apologized to Chris Rock by name. "I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong," he wrote.
"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," Will wrote. He signed off, "I am a work in progress."
See Will Smith's apology here:
The Academy, which said in a tweet after the Oscars that it does not "condone violence of any form," is reviewing Will Smith's actions and will decide on consequences, if any.