This episode might be as anticipated as Jada’s sit-down with Jordyn Woods in 2019…
It seems the Smith family will soon be publicly addressing the incident at this year’s Oscars that resulted in Will Smith getting a ten-year ban from the Academy.
Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that “when the time calls”, she and her family will discuss the moment her husband slapped Chris Rock on-stage via her Facebook Watch talk show, Red Table Talk.
At the March 27 awards ceremony, Chris directed a joke about G.I. Jane at Jada in reference to her shaved head – which she sports due to a years-long struggle with alopecia hair loss. Will stormed the stage moments later and slapped the comedian before returning to his seat and shouting, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth.”
Will apologised to Chris a day later, saying he “reacted emotionally” as the “joke about Jada’s medical condition” was “too much for me to bear”. He has since resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Oscars, and accepted the Academy’s decision to take disciplinary action by banning him from attending its events over the next 10 years.
At the beginning of Red Table Talk’s season five premiere episode on Wednesday, a statement appeared on screen explaining why the incident and its subsequent fallout would not be mentioned in initial episodes.
“Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing,” the statement read. “Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls.
“Until then… the table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring and healing testimonies like that of our incredibly impressive first guest. Thanks for joining us, Jada.”
The episode then saw Jada, her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and her daughter Willow sit down at the red table to chat with singer/actress Janelle Monáe.
Will has previously sat across his wife at the red table for the show, most famously to discuss the pair’s open marriage and Jada’s “entanglement” with singer August Alsina.
The couple have also appeared on the show as a family alongside Adrienne, Willow, their son Jaden, and Will’s son Trey, who he shares with ex-wife Sheree Zampino.
