Will Smith shares emotional apology to Chris Rock over Oscars slap
Will Smith has returned to social media after a four month hiatus to apologise to Chris Rock after slapping him at the Oscars following a joke Rock made about his wife Jada.
Sharing the video to Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, an emotional Will apologises to Chris and says he is ready to talk to him when he is ready.
The video, which is just over five minutes long, is captioned, “It’s been a minute…”, and opens with text on-screen that reads, “Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work”.
“You asked a lot of fair questions that I wanted to take some time to answer”. Will then appears in front of the camera to face the questions head on.
The 53-year-old said he didn’t apologise to Chris at the time of his acceptance speech because, “I was fogged out by that point. It’s all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out”.
“So I will say to you Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk”.
He went on to apologise to Rock’s family, his mum in particular, because he didn’t realise, “how many people got hurt in that moment”.
The dad-of-three went on to explain, “There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment”.
When addressing if his wife told him to slap Chris because of what he said about her, Smith stated, “I made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it”.
“I’m sorry babe. I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I brought on all of us”.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor reveals he is remorseful for his actions. “It hurts me psychologically and emotionally to know I didn’t live up to people’s image and impression of me”.
He closes off the video by telling his fans, “If you hang on, I promise we’ll be able to be friends again”.
Since the event at the Oscars on March 27, Will has only addressed the slap once in his last Instagram post in the days following the ceremony, before taking a break from social media.
He wrote a lengthy note to Chris, the Academy and to attendees of the show, in which he admitted, “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally”.
Many fellow comedians including Kevin Hart and King Bach commented on the video that Smith posted today with hearts and applause emojis to show their support, while fans of the actor applauded him for speaking out.
