Rose Rock, Chris Rock’s mom, is speaking out about the “slap heard ‘round the world” between Will Smith and her son.
In a one-on-one interview with WIS-TV, Rock opened up about her feelings about Smith slapping her son on live television during the Academy Awards. The author and motivational speaker revealed that she initially thought the slap was staged until she heard Smith yelling profanity.
She said Smith reacted to Jada Pinkett-Smith’s reaction to Rock’s joke about her hair. “You reacted to your wife giving you the side-eye, and you went and made her day because she was mulled over laughing when it happened,” she told Billie Jean Shaw.
She said ultimately, Smith hurt her. “When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us,” she continued. “He really slapped me because when you hurt my child, you hurt me.”
Smith was subsequently banned from attending the award show for 10 years. He took his own initiative and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.
But Rock said she was proud of how her son handled the incident, noting that it could have gone differently. When asked if Rock and Smith should sit down, she said that would have to be up to them. She did say that Smith’s public apology was not enough and that he should have reached out to Rock privately to apologize.
