Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes has broken her silence on the incident at Sunday’s awards ceremony and revealed that Chris Rock apologised to her after he was slapped onstage by Will Smith.
Wanda, who hosted alongside fellow comedy actors Regina Hall and Amy Schumer on Sunday night, said that she saw Chris at an Oscars afterparty and “the first thing he said was: ‘I’m so sorry.’”
“And I’m like, ‘Why are you apologising?’” she recalled during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday “And he’s like, ‘It was supposed to be your night. You and Amy and Regina, y’all were doing such a great job. I’m so sorry. This is now going to be about this.’”
Will stunned viewers around the world when he walked onto the Oscars stage and slapped Chris, who had just told a “G.I. Jane” joke about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. She has alopecia and shaved her head due to the condition.
Will later won Best Actor for his role in King Richard, a biopic about Richard Williams, the father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams.
The actor cried during his acceptance speech and, apparently referencing what he’d just done, said that “love will make you do crazy things.”
The following day, he apologised to Chris and everyone else who witnessed the incident. Police said Chris declined to press charges.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said later on Wednesday that Will was asked to leave the Oscars after hitting Chris but refused.
The academy also said its board of governors met on Wednesday to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Will for violating the group’s standards of conduct.
The jaw-dropping attack overshadowed all else at the Oscars, including a number of historic wins.
“It was sickening,” Wanda told Ellen. “I physically felt ill, and I’m still a little traumatised by it.
“And for them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, ‘How gross is this? This is just the wrong message.’” (The Academy has since claimed Will was asked to leave after the incident but refused.)
“He apologised to Chris,” Wanda acknowledged, but noted that she and her co-hosts had worked hard to put the show together and that “no one has apologised to us.”
Amy Schumer also weighed in on the drama on Wednesday. In an Instagram post, she said the incident was “disturbing” but that her friend Chris “handled it like a pro.”
She said she was still “waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”