Jada Pinkett Smith has reacted to being bashed by the public over her estranged husband Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony.
In an interview with People shared Thursday, Jada vented that ‘It was ridiculous in how far it went.’
The 52-year-old actress-turned-talk show host, who admitted this week that she had been separated from her husband Will for seven years, said that her previous admission in 2020 to having a ‘relationship’ with singer August Alsina led people to falsely accuse her of cheating.
According to her, the alleged misconception made her an easy target for blame over the shocking on-stage slap, which was caused by a joke Chris made about her haircut.
‘But I also understood at the same time. Considering the false narrative that I had cheated on Will or I was like some adulteress, Will had never done that before,’ Jada said of responses to herself and her husband.
‘I think that when we just look at human nature… when you look at the breadcrumbs, people need something to blame,’ she continued.
‘And so people not knowing what was happening behind the scenes, I surely wasn’t surprised that I got blamed,’ Jada added. ‘But I understood that that’s just the human nature of it all.’
In her People interview, Jada claimed that she was so surprised by Will strutting up to the Oscars stage to slap Chris that she assumed it was a skit that they had come up with ahead of time and kept secret for maximum shock value.
It wasn’t until she could see her husband’s face afterward that she realized there wasn’t anything funny about the slap.
‘I was like, “There’s no way that Will hit him,”‘ she said. ‘It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.’
She added that her first words to Will after the conclusion of the show were, ‘Are you OK?’