Jada Pinkett Smith says she was blamed for estranged husband Will Smith’s Oscars slap because she was painted as an ‘adulteress’

Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking out about how the public reacted to her in the wake of her estranged husband Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony.

In an interview with People Shared on Thursday, Jada expressed that ‘It was ridiculous in how far it went.’

The 52-year-old actress-turned-talk-show host – who admitted this week that she had been separated from husband Will for a staggering seven years – said her previous admission in 2020 that she was having an ‘affair’ with August Alsina had people falsely accuse her of fraud.

This alleged misconception then made her an easy target for blame for the shocking on-stage slap, which was preceded by a joke Chris made about her cut hair, which was in response to her hair loss caused by alopecia .

‘But I also understood at the same time. Considering the false narrative that I cheated on Will or I was like some adulteress, Will has never done that before,’ Jada said of responses to herself and her husband.

Opening: Jada Pinkett Smith, 52, shared her response to the blame for her husband Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars; seen in Hollywood in March 2022

Wrong information? Jada claimed the blame went too far, saying she was wrongly called an ‘adulterer’ for admitting to having an affair while she and Will were separated; Will and Chris Rock seen at the 2022 Oscars

“I think that when we just look at human nature… if you look at the breadcrumbs, people need something to blame,” she continued.

“And so people who didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes, I certainly wasn’t surprised that I got blamed,” Jada added. “But I’ve come to understand that it’s just the human nature of it all.”

Will has been on the same page with his wife since his violent outburst on live television, and he was adamant that she share no blame for his actions.

He was even more explicit in a video from July 2022, several months after the controversial ceremony, in which he stated that she did not tell him to do anything about Chris’ prank.

‘It’s like… I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it,’ he declared. “I’m sorry, honey. I want to say sorry to my children and my family for the heat I brought on all of us.’

Jada first confessed to August Alsina, a singer who is 21 years her junior, during a blockbuster episode of her Red Table Talk series, in which her husband was her guest.

During the talk, she made the shocking admission that she had some kind of relationship with August, although she claimed it didn’t count as an ‘affair’.

However, she also claimed that Will never gave his blessing to the relationship, as the couple were divorced at the time.

Taking the blame: ‘And so people who don’t know what happened behind the scenes, I certainly wasn’t surprised that I got the blame,’ Jada opined. ‘But I’ve come to understand that it’s just the human nature of it all’

His fault: Will clarified after the fact that Jada wasn’t to blame for the slap, saying she didn’t ask him to do anything about Chris’ joke about her shaved head, which was in response to hair loss from alopecia was not ; seen at the 2022 Oscars

August himself claimed that the Men In Black star approved of the relationship, which Jada said was false.

In her People interview, Jada claimed that she was so surprised by Will walking up to the Oscars stage to slap Chris that she assumed it was a sketch they had come up with ahead of time and kept secret from maximum shock value.

It was only when she could see her husband’s face afterwards that she realized there was nothing funny about the slap.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way Will is hitting him,'” she said. “It wasn’t until Will started walking back to his chair that I realized it wasn’t a skit.”

She added that her first words to Will after the show ended were: ‘Are you OK?’

Jada also talked about her connection with Chris Rock in her People cover story.

The two had tense interactions in the aftermath of the 2016 Academy Awards ceremony.

She called for the show to be canceled in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, and in his Netflix comedy special earlier this year, Chris claimed to his audience that Jada encouraged him to leave the performance in solidarity with protests over the Academy failed to nominate more Black artists and performers.

However, she now admits that she didn’t ‘really recognize the level of pressure (Chris) might have been under’ at the time.

Cut off: Jada said that Chris tried to apologize to her after Will slapped him at the Oscars, but she cut him off and hasn’t spoken to him since; seen at the 2016 Oscars

She added that his ‘feelings may have been hurt’ and she said she should have given him a call to clarify her feelings.

Jada said that shortly after the slap and the end of his awards show, the comedian came down to the audience to apologize, when she recalled him saying: ‘I meant you no harm.’

But she said she replied: ‘I can’t talk about this right now, Chris. That’s some old s***,’ and confusingly, she claimed she cut him off because she thought he was referring to tension with her and Will from the 2016 show, as well as unspecified issues he and her husband had has. to the 1980s, rather than the slap that occurred minutes earlier that viewers around the world saw.

She added that she hadn’t spoken to him since cutting off his apology at the 2022 Oscars.