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What led up to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's hair loss. Here's a look at the timeline of events before and after the altercation.
Chris Rock's mom is addressing her son's incident with Will Smith at the Oscars last month.
The "King Richard" actor slapped Rock at the Academy Awards after the comedian cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, referring to the 1997 film "G.I. Jane," starring Demi Moore. Pinkett Smith, 50, has struggled with alopecia.
Now, nearly a month later, Rock's mom Rose is speaking out.
"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," Rose, who is a motivational speaker, told WIS’ Billie Jean Shaw.
Rose added that, like many, she was watching the Oscars at home and initially thought the moment was staged.
However, when Smith began to use "obscenities," she knew it was real, stating.
"When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really slapped me," Rose told the outlet.
Rock had presented the award for best documentary feature to Questlove that night.
"No one even heard his speech," Rose said. "No one was able to just be in the moment because everyone was sitting there like, ‘What just happened?’"
Rose went on to share that she reached out to her son and let him know how proud of him she was for his reaction. Rose's sentiment is one that was shared by many viewers. As the moment went viral, many took to social media and commended Rock for not escalating the confrontation.
"If Chris Rock had hit Will Smith back, we all would have said Chris Rock is a bad person right?" one viewer tweeted. "Firstly, we all need to applaud his professionalism for not hitting Will Smith back. The words Will Smith said at the end could have been said instead of slapping him and he’d stop."
Earlier this month, the academy announced that Smith was banned from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years following his slap of presenter Rock at this year’s ceremony. The decision came after a meeting of the academy’s board of governors to discuss a response to Smith’s actions.
"I accept and respect the academy’s decision," the actor said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital at the time. Smith, who won the Oscar for best actor, also previously resigned from the academy and publicly apologized.
On the academy's decision, Rose told the outlet, "I wouldn’t take his award away, and I don’t see any good way they could have taken him out without disrupting."
As for Smith's public apology, Rose says she feels that the actor should reach out to her son.
"I feel really bad that he never apologized," Rose said. "I mean his people wrote up a piece saying, ‘I apologize to Chris Rock,’ but you see something like that is personal, you reach out."
At the time, Smith apologized on social media to Rock.
"Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive," Smith wrote in part on Instagram before publicly apologizing to Rock. "I was out of line and I was wrong."
Since the incident, Smith has recently resurfaced. He was spotted in Mumbai, India, smiling and posing for photos with adoring fans.
He also waved to nearby onlookers shouting "Will! Will!"
On Wednesday, Pinkett Smith said her family is "focusing on deep healing."
"Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing," a statement from Pinkett Smith before Wednesday's Facebook Live episode of Red Table Talk said.
Rock has been performing stand-up since the Oscars incident. In his first stage appearance since the slap, he told a Boston crowd he's "still kind of processing what happened."
"At some point, I'll talk about that s---, and it will be serious, and it will be funny," Rock shared.
Reps for Chris Rock and Will Smith did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco and The Associated Press contributed to this report.