Jada Smith’s memoir, titled Worthy, follows her difficult childhood, her marriage, her parenting style, her career choices, and the intense scrutiny that followed “the slap.” While promoting the book, the Red Table Talk host gave several revelations, all inside.
‘The Slap’: What Happened
The infamous Oscars slap was an incident that occurred during the 94th Academy Awards in March 2022, when actor Will Smith walked onstage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face during Rock’s presentation of the Best Documentary Feature prize.
The Emancipation star slapped Chris Rock because Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, a result of her battle with alopecia areata since 2021. Smith then went back to his seat and yelled at Rock. While Rock briefly responded, he proceeded without any more interruptions.
Later that evening, Smith won Best Actor for his role in King Richard. During his acceptance speech, he apologized to the Academy and the following day, he went on social media to apologize to both Rock and the AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).
On April 1, Smith voluntarily resigned his AMPAS membership and was later prohibited from participating in AMPAS-related events for ten years.
Jada Talks The Oscars Incident
Speaking with People to promote her new book Worthy, Jada Smith recollected the incident after nearly a year and a half and spoke out about what was going on in her mind at that moment.
“I thought, ‘This is a skit.’ I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’ ” Jada says. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.”
The first words she uttered to Will once they were alone after the show were “Are you okay?”
Jada Drops Relationship Bombshell
“We’re still figuring it out,” Jada says of the state of their marriage. She says they had been separated for six years before the Oscars in 2022.
“We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
Jada Smith
In an interview with NBC, Jada revealed that she and Will have been separated since 2016, but they are still legally married. She went on to say that “it was not a divorce on paper, but it was a divorce.”
Back in April last year, Us Weekly reported that Jada Smith wished Will Smith hadn’t gotten physical with Chris Rock.
“It was in the heat of the moment and it was him overreacting. He knows that, she knows that. They’re in agreement that he overreacted,”
A source close to Us Weekly
The description of Jada Smith’s Worthy reads: A gripping, at times painfully honest, and ultimately inspirational memoir from global superstar and creator of the Red Table Talk series Jada Pinkett Smith.
You can order the memoir here.
