Jada Pinkett Smithis revealing what went through her mind when her husbandWill SmithslappedChris Rockat the 2022Academy Awards.
“I thought, ‘This is a skit,' " Jada, 52, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, while discussing hernew bookWorthy, out Oct. 17. “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 tells PEOPLE that the first words she spoke to Will once they were alone were: “Are you okay?”
David Livingston/Getty
Will wasbannedfrom attending Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences events — including the Oscars — for 10 years in the days following the incident. He has sinceapologized multiple times for his actions, including apologies to Rock and a confession that hesimply “lost it"during an appearance onThe Daily Showlast November.
Rock, meanwhile, refrained from publicly commenting on the incident until his live-broadcasted Netflix standup comedy specialChris Rock: Selective Outragein March, where he said hedoes not think of himself as a victim.
Obidigbo Nzeribe
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
A source told PEOPLE in March that Will has “tried unsuccessfully to make amendsin the best way he could with Chris” in the months following the incident. Rock’s friend and fellow comedian Leslie Jones recently told PEOPLE that the incident “really affected him.”
Jada’s new memoir recounts further what went through her mind during the incident, as well as the revelation that she and Will “had been living separate lives and were there as family, not as husband and wife,” at the time of the 2022 Oscars ceremony.
“But when I hear Will yell ‘wife’ in the chaos of the moment, an internal shift ofOh s— . . . I am his wife!happens instantly,” she writes in the book.
Jada’s new memoir,Worthy, hits bookshelves everywhere Oct. 17.
source: people.com
