Chris Rock has yet to receive a personal apology from his former friend Will Smith for the infamous Oscar slap, and feels the actor’s public mea culpa “didn’t mean a thing.”
The 58-year-old comedian sparked serious controversy this week when he reignited the scandal during a Netflix stand-up special during which he delivered a humiliating blow to Will, 54, a year after the sensational awards show.
Chris accused Will of having “selective indignation” during the show’s finale and added insult to injury by repeating the matter of Will’s wife Jada. But a source close to Chris tells DailyMail.com that he could have been avoided with a simple ‘sorry’.
“Chris never got a private apology from Will, just a public one that didn’t really mean anything,” insisted a source close to the comedian. In fact, Will has only addressed the situation twice: once on Instagram the day after the Oscars and again in a video apology.
Chris Rock has yet to receive a one-on-one personal apology from his former friend Will Smith for the infamous Oscar slap, a source has revealed to DailyMail.com
The 58-year-old comedian sparked controversy this week when he brought up the (seen) slap scandal in a new Netflix stand-up special, delivering a series of savage jabs to the 54-year-old Will.
But the source insisted that Chris’s decision to repeat the scandal on his Netflix show had nothing to do with seeking revenge, but rather a way for the comedian to “get it all out” and “get it over with.”
‘Chris wanted to get this out once and for all and be done with it. This was very cathartic for him,” the source added.
The comedian certainly didn’t hold back when it came to unearthing the stage slap scandal.
Instead, he doubled down on his attack on the A-list couple by bringing up Jada’s admitted affair with her son Jaden’s close friend, musician August Alsini, 30, in 2020.
To a stunned audience, both live and on location, Chris said Will had deflected anger due to the fact that “his wife was banging his son’s friend.”
And to add insult to injury, Chris’ humiliating blowback aired exactly one week before the 2023 Oscars take place on March 12, an event Will is banned from attending for the next ten years as a result of his violent outburst. at the ceremony last year.
However, the source responded to claims that Chris had something to do with the timing of the Netflix special, telling DailyMail.com: “Netflix decided when to run this, not Chris.”
Aside from the joke about Jada’s affair, Chris also took aim at Meghan Markle during his special by saying that Meghan was “acting dumb” for not realizing that the royal family are the “OGs of racism.”
This prompted social media users to lash out at Chris, accusing him of being racist for bringing up a sensitive topic.
In his Netflix special, Chris brought up Jada’s affair, something she openly discussed with her husband on a 2020 episode of their talk show Red Table Talk (seen)
Jada had an affair with her son Jaden’s close friend, 30-year-old musician August Alsini. They appear together at the BET Awards in 2017.
Chris’s inner circle vehemently disagreed, telling DailyMail.com: ‘Chris is not a racist at all. Could not be farther from the truth.’
“Chris is a black man who makes jokes about other black people from a black person’s perspective. He has nothing but love for black people, and for all people.
The infamous slap occurred in March 2022 when Chris took the stage to present an Oscar for best documentary feature. Addressing Will and Jada, he said that he was ‘waiting’ to see Jada in GI Jane, making fun of her shaved head.
Immediately, Will came on stage and hit Chris on the side of the head. After returning to his front row seat, he yelled, ‘Keep the fucking name of my wife’s mother out of your mouth.’
In the weeks that followed, Will was forced to resign from the Academy, which subsequently banned him for 10 years.
During his Saturday night stand-up special, Chris shared his afterthoughts, telling the audience: ‘Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face. But I’m not a victim, honey. You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying.
‘Everyone called him a b**ch, and who is he hitting? Me. Everybody knows what happened to me, when Suge Smith hit me,” Chris joked. ‘It still hurts. I have ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.’
Chris then addressed why he didn’t hit Will back, saying, ‘You know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of the whites.
Chris has also criticized Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, taking aim at their interview with Oprah and their claims that a royal raised concerns about the color of her children’s skin.
Chris told the crowd on Saturday: ‘Who is this girl, Meghan Markle? She seems like a nice lady, she just complains. Like, didn’t she win the fair-skinned lottery?
The day after the attack, Will took to Instagram to apologize to Chris, writing: “I would like to apologize to you Chris, I went overboard and was wrong.”
The only other apology came in July 2022, when Will posted a video apology, again, to Chris, saying, “I apologize to you.” My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.
In a new report published by PeopleA source close to Will said that he “tried unsuccessfully to make amends with Chris the best way he could,” though the source close to the comedian says those efforts stopped short of calling him in person.
Chris also criticized Meghan and Harry during their routine, taking aim at their interview with Oprah and their claims that a royal had allegedly raised concerns about the color of their children’s skin.
‘Like, who is this Meghan Markle girl? She seems like a nice lady, she just complains,” Chris said.
‘Like, didn’t the fair-skinned win the lottery?’ Chris said, joking that the royal family are the ‘OGs of racism’.
Chris mocked Meghan for telling Oprah during her interview that she didn’t know the royal family was racist when she married Harry.
‘That’s the royal family, didn’t you google those sons of bitches? They are the original racists. They invented colonialism,” Chris joked to the crowd.