Jada Pinkett Smith Was Shocked Will Smith Called Her ‘Wife’ in Oscars Outburst

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about Will Smith’s infamous 2022 Oscars slap.

Smith smacked Chris Rock onstage after the comedian made a joke about Jada’s hair.

Now, the “Today” show’s Hoda Kotb reports that Chris approached Jada immediately off camera and leaned over the stage to apologize.

Jada shared, “Chris looks to me and he says, ‘Jada, I meant no harm.’ I’m just out of it because I’m really worried about Will. And Will’s still talking. Now he’s mad because Chris is talking to me.”

“And I go, ‘Chris, this is about some old sh*t.’ That’s all I could think to say, right? And I couldn’t really take in his apology,” she said.

Jada also shared how shocked she was over the altercation itself, including when Will told Chris, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth.” At that point, they had not been living as a married couple for six years.

“First of all, I’m really shocked. Mind you… we haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” she said, adding, “I’m like, ‘What is going on right now?’ And now I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know what is going on.”

She later said Will’s outburst was “not him, whatsoever.”

Earlier this week, news broke that Will and Jada had been separated since 2016.

The actress revealed the news in her new memoir “Worthy,” and also opened up to Hoda in a previously aired segment.

The TV anchor asked Jada why they hadn’t spoken about the split until now. Jada said, “I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, and in regards to how do we present that to people, and we hadn’t figured that out.”

As for why the relationship fractured, Pinkett Smith said, “That’s a lot of things. I think by the time we got to 2016, we were both just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”

They did consider a legal divorce, but Jada said, “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” believing “We will work through… whatever.”

She added, “I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”