Wanda Sykes has confirmed that Will Smith did indeed reach out to apologize to her after he infamously slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
Sykes, 61, co-hosted that year’s ceremony alongside Amy Schumer and Regina Hall. They became the first female trio ever to host the Academy Awards.
However, what was meant to be a celebratory return — the first in-person Oscars since Covid — ended up being soured by Smith’s onstage assault of presenter Rock.
While Sykes previously said that she had never received an apology from Smith for the incident, she has now told Variety in a new interview: “He did. He called.
“I had Covid or a bad cold,” she recalled, “I just texted to say, ‘Hey, I got your message. Thank you. I can’t talk.’ But he did call.”
Asked whether she still considered the evening an achievement, Sykes said, “I mean, I loved working with Regina and Amy. But like you said, it got overshadowed.
“People talk to me about that night without even mentioning, ‘Oh yeah, you hosted, right?’ Like I was in the audience or at home, watching TV. But I was there.”
During the 94th Oscars telecast, Rock had been on stage to present the award for Best Documentary Feature when he made an unscripted joke about Smith’s wife Jada’s baldness, a result of alopecia.
The Men in Black star then walked up to Rock, hitting him across the face with an open hand. He returned to his seat, yelling at Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his “f***ing mouth.”
Minutes later, Smith received the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in King Richard and made a tearful speech in which he apologized to all except Rock.
Days after the altercation, Sykes appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, revealing that she had run into Rock at an Oscars afterparty.
“As soon as I walked up to him, the first thing he said was, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I’m like, ‘Why are you apologizing?’” she remembered at the time.
“He was 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 gonna be about this.’ Because that’s who Chris is.”
Sykes also said that she thought Smith should have been removed from the ceremony after the “sickening” behavior, adding: “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 sends the wrong message. If you assault somebody, you get escorted out the building and that’s it. But for them to let him continue, I thought it was gross.”
Weeks later, the governing board behind the Oscars announced it was banning Smith from attending Academy Awards shows and any related Academy events for the next 10 years.
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