In early spring of 2022, a lot of people lost their collective minds over the Oscars.
After Chris Rock’s jabs about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith jogged up to the stage and slapped him.
In the aftermath, people simply refused to be normal about it. The world also learned a lot about Will and Jada’s troubled marriage.
But Jada recently shared something else. That infamous slap? It may have saved their marriage.
In a recent interview with The Daily Mail, Jada Pinkett Smith shared how Will Smith’s ardent defense of her at the 2022 Academy Awards helped clarify a lot of things for her.
She knew in that moment that she and Will would, and should, always be together.
“After all those years trying to figure out if I would leave Will’s side,” Jada said. “It took that slap for me to see I will never leave him.”
“Who knows where our relationship would be if that hadn’t happened?” Jada then asked.
Back in October, she shared that she and Will had actually separated — quietly, secretly — seven years ago.
According to her, they had become “exhausted with trying” to make their marriage work. This was after nearly two decades of marriage, by the way. No small feat.
At the time, Jada had emphasized that, “on paper,” she and Will were still married. There was no secret divorce filing or anything of the sort.
However, in their minds, they were no longer a couple. They were exes who respected each other and co-parented their amazing children.
In public, of course, they continued to present themselves as one of Hollywood’s most doting couples. They’d had decades of practice, after all.
As you may recall, Chris Rock decided to make jokes at the Oscars about Jada’s closely shaved head.
Jada has alopecia. Additionally, the comedian has a reputation for having some sort of fixation about her. It’s unsettling.
That was why Will strode up to the stage and slapped Chris. The exchange between the two incredibly wealthy men was a scandal … justifiably, but many blew it out of proportion.
“I call it the ‘holy slap’ now,” Jada revealed in her recent interview.
She explained that she calls it that “because so many positive things came after it.”
Jada admitted: “I nearly didn’t even attend the Oscars that year, but I’m glad I did.”
“That moment of the s–t hitting the fan,” Jada expressed, “is when you see where you really are.”
In other words? To his core, Will is someone who will hurt his own career and public brand in order to defend her.
That means a lot to both of them.