Jada Pinkett Smith revealed that her husband Will Smith‘s infamous Oscars slap at the 2022 ceremony, when he walked onstage and smacked Chris Rock across the face re-affirmed their marriage after years of separation.
“When I was sitting at the Oscars, it clicked in. I was like, ‘Oh snap, you hit Chris?’” Jada recalled during an in-person conversation in partnership with CAA and Vanity Fair at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York City on Monday, October 16, according to Variety.
“I was like, I’m riding with you. I didn’t come into this place as your wife, but I’m leaving here as your wife because we have a storm that we’re going to have to deal with together,” she contuned. “I am not going to leave your side.”
Jada also told the audience that Will — along with their children Trey, Jaden and Willow — granted her permission to include anything about their lives in her memoir.
“[Will] was like, ‘You haven’t been able to have your authentic voice through and through,’” she explained. “‘I will be comfortable with whatever you have to share, I trust you.’”
Will read the book before she gave it to her editor, Jada noted, adding, “he didn’t change a word. He changed nothing.”
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, Worthy, out on Tuesday, October 17, Jada revealed she and Will “had been living separate lives and were at the Oscars as family, not as husband and wife.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.