Jada Pinkett Smith Was Caught off Guard by This Oscars Moment That Wasn’t Will Smith & Chris Rock’s Slap

We all remember the slap heard around the world from the 2022 Oscars. It turns out that the fact that Will Smith smacked Chris Rock wasn’t what left Jada Pinkett Smith’s jaw hanging, however — it was something her husband, whom she just revealed she has been secretly separated from for the past seven years, said just before the infamous smack.

Pinkett Smith recently sat down with Hoda Kotb on Today to promote her upcoming memoir Worthy. Of course, once Pinkett Smith dropped the bombshell that she had been separated from her husband for such a long time without anyone knowing, Kotb had to ask about the Oscar moment and the impact it had on her.

“I could tell it bothered you, you did an eye roll,” Kotb noted as Pinkett Smith nodded her head.

“I did that eye roll not so much for me, and I think this is really important, but the fact that there could be a jab at alopecia,” she said of Rock’s less-than-savory joke. When Smith told Rock to “get my wife’s name out of your mouth,” Pinkett Smith thought, “What is going on?” Not because Smith was ostensibly defending her in an off-putting manner, but the fact that he referred to her as his wife.

“First of all, I’m really shocked,” she said of the moment. “Let me remind you, I’m not there… we haven’t called each other ‘husband and wife’ in a long time,” she explained, adding that she was “really worried for Will, because I don’t know what’s going on.”

Pinkett Smith told Kotb that she and Smith had been separated since 2016, and acknowledged that the two have fought off separation rumors throughout the public facade of staying together. She also further elaborates on the Oscar slap in Worthy, revealing that Rock had heard about the divorce rumors before the infamous event and had even attempted to ask her out.

“I talk about this in the book, I think that there might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I as far as the 2016 Oscars. I think that he might’ve taken offense, which I meant no harm in offending. That wasn’t my intention. But I do think that there’s a big misunderstanding there.”

Before you go, click here for all the celebrity splits and divorces we never saw coming.