Ahead of premiering Wednesday’s Red Table Talk discussion on alopecia, Jada Pinkett Smith briefly addressed the Oscars incident between husband Will Smith and Chris Rock.
“This is a really important Red Table Talk on alopecia. Considering what I’ve been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories. I’m using this moment to give our alopecia family an opportunity to talk about what it’s like to have this condition and to inform people about what alopecia actually is,” Pinkett Smith said at the top of the Facebook Watch show.
“Now, about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile,” she added. “The state of the world today, we need them both. And we all actually need one another more than ever. Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together. Thank you for listening.”
While presenting the Oscar for best documentary feature at the 2022 Academy Awards, Rock addressed Pinkett Smith in the crowd, joking that he was looking forward to her upcoming sequel to G.I. Jane — a reference to the actress’ shaved head. Following Rock’s comment, Smith walked up onstage and slapped Rock.
Smith, who won the best actor Oscar for King Richard later that evening, announced the following week that he was resigning from the Academy amid a pending investigation of his actions during the ceremony. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences eventually ruled that Smith would be banned from returning to the Oscars or attending any other Academy events for the next 10 years.
The day after the ceremony, Smith took to Instagram to apologize for his “unacceptable and inexcusable” behavior at the Academy Awards and to Rock, writing: “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. I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Wednesday’s comments marked the first time Pinkett Smith has directly addressed the incident. At the top of the Red Table Talk season premiere episode, a message appeared onscreen reading: “Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focused on deep healing. Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls.” The message did not specify at the time when the physical altercation between Smith and Rock would be addressed.
During Wednesday’s Red Table Talk discussion, Pinkett Smith, along with her daughter, Willow, and mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris, talked about the importance of giving the alopecia community a voice and an opportunity to tell their story. Pinkett Smith said that the “most difficult” part for her is that her hair “comes and goes.” She went on to explain that she experiences anxiety wondering, “What’s my hair going to look like today?”
“People don’t understand what alopecia is, and they don’t understand the effects of it,” Pinkett Smith said.
Later on, the hosts were joined by the mother of 12-year-old Rio Allred, who suffered from alopecia and died by suicide after being bullied. When sharing Rio’s story, her mother, Niki Ball reflected on how nearly two weeks after her death, the Oscars incident happened. “People are going to be Googling, ‘What is alopecia?’ Like, ‘What is this that we’ve never heard of?’ It’s not a joke,” she said.
Also during the episode, a woman who worked in the hair industry for more than a decade and former NBA player Charlie Villanueva spoke about their alopecia journeys, and a top hair surgeon broke down the different types of alopecia.
