While last night’s Academy Awards ceremony consisted of exciting wins and memorable Hollywood glamor, the highlight of the evening took an unexpected turn when Will Smith took to the stage and smacked comedian Chris Rock across the face after a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s buzzcut.
Presenting the award for Best Documentary, Chris Rock joked, “Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2 can’t wait to see it,” comparing the Red Table Talk host’s shaved head to that of Demi Moore’s buzzcut in the 1997 Navy film, inciting the altercation with the King Richard actor. Will walked onstage and slapped the comedian, later saying, “leave my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth.” With Pinkett Smith struggling with an autoimmune condition that results in accelerated hair loss called alopecia, it’s safe to say the jab struck a nerve.
In July, Pinkett Smith debuted her freshly-shaved hairstyle alongside daughter Willow on Instagram writing, “Willow made me do it because it was time to let go BUT … my 50’s are bout to be Divinely lit with this shed,” she captioned the post.
The actress has been candid about the condition since 2018, when she revealed her diagnosis and discussed the disorder on Red Table Talk.
“A lot of people have been asking why I’ve been wearing turbans. Well, I haven’t talked about it. It’s not easy to talk about, but I am going to talk about it,” she explained. “It was terrifying when it first started. I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, ‘Oh my god, am I going bald?”
While the star said she attempted treatment with steroids and holistic remedies in the past, alopecia is not known to have any one clear-cut treatment or cure. “My hair has been a big part of me,” Pinkett Smith said in 2018. “Taking care of my hair has been a beautiful ritual and having the choice to have hair or not. And then one day to be like, Oh my god, I might not have that choice anymore.”
Married since 1997, Will and Jada have been at the center of Rock’s jokes before. In his monologue while hosting the 2016 Oscars, Rock poked fun at Pinkett Smith’s protest against the Oscars, pledging not to attend the ceremony for the Academy’s failure to nominate any people of color in the most notable categories as a part of the #OscarsSoWhite movement.
