WHAT?? Chris Rock Asked Jada Pinkett Smith Out Amid Rumors She And Will Were Divorcing!

This is SO awkward, but also provides so much more context for the Oscars slap!

In a new chat with People out on Wednesday, Jada Pinkett Smith opened up about her complicated history with Chris Rock, who Will Smith famously slapped during the award show last year. Not only does she have some beef with the Everybody Hates Chris alum, but he once totally admitted he was crushing on her and got brutally rejected!

She claims their problems all started in 2016, and the drama also stemmed from the Academy Awards. At the time, Jada was in support of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, calling for a boycott of the show after Will was overlooked for his performance in Concussion, among many other Black creatives. The issue? Chris was hosting that year.

Referencing her upcoming book Worthy, the Scream 2 star acknowledged:

“I talk about this in the book, I think that there might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I as far as the 2016 Oscars. I think that he might’ve taken offense, which I meant no harm in offending. That wasn’t my intention. But I do think that there’s a big misunderstanding there.”

Now, Jada admits she did “not really recognizing the level of pressure [Chris] might’ve been under” at the time, noting she could’ve done a lot more to support him while also sticking up for the cause:

“I probably should have called him and gone, ‘Hey, are you okay? And just know that although I’m speaking out about the Oscars, I do wish you the best and I just want you to know that,’ me taking the time to have called him and said that, just to touch base. But his feelings might’ve been hurt.”

But, of course, she didn’t make that phone call. And in his Netflix special Selective Outrage earlier this year, Chris took jabs at the Smiths for the controversy. Looking back, Jada said:

“All we can ever do is just look at our part and see where could I have done something that would’ve seemed as if… Whatever misunderstanding might’ve been created, what could I have done to avoid that misunderstanding? The one thing that I think about is that call.”

Innerestingly, they did have a phone call in 2016 after the award ceremony to hash it out — and she thought everything was A-OK! She dished:

“He apologized and I apologized to him as well. So I actually thought that we were good, that the hatchet was buried between us. And we hadn’t talked since then, until 2022 came.”

But after the Madagascar actor made a joke about Jada’s bald head, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum stormed the stage and hit him in the middle of the broadcast, shocking the world. Even the 52-year-old woman was confused at first:

“From where I was sitting I couldn’t tell. It didn’t look like Will hit Chris, because, number one, I’d seen Will in the boxing ring with pro fighters — Will’s a heavy-hitter. So when Chris moved, it looked like he ducked or he missed the shot. And when he continued to stand, and then when he continued to walk down to the end of the stage, I was like, ‘There’s no way. There’s no way that Will hit him.’ […] It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit. I was in as much of a fog as anybody else in that room that night.”

She recalled trying to “keep myself grounded and settled for the people around us, and specifically for Will,” adding:

“I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. I just knew, one thing I’ve realized in everything I’ve been through is stay calm, stay clear. Just so you can keep your awareness on what is happening around you.”

After the cameras cut to commercial, she and Chris shared a moment, she revealed:

“Chris came down to the end of the stage and tried to apologize to me. He said, ‘I didn’t mean you any harm.’ I said, ‘I can’t talk about this now, Chris. This is some old s**t.’ I thought this was [about] the Oscar 2016 and … their stuff that they had before I even came into the picture in the late ‘80s. I’ve got to leave that to Will and Chris to talk about, but they got their stuff for sure.”

While she didn’t love being the punchline, she understood it’s just part of the job:

“I mean, that’s what comedians do. I would just have to say that I am not really here to make any judgment on how people decide to express themselves and express their art. I’ll say that several times I’ve had my feelings hurt, for sure. I’ve had my feelings hurt a lot by Chris. But at the end of the day, too, being in the spotlight, it comes with the territory.”

Here’s where things get VERY spicy, though!

One of the reasons Will might have been so sensitive to Chris’ remark is because Chris once tried to steal his girl! WHAT?! The author reveals in her book that the stand-up comedian asked her out when he thought the couple was divorcing! OMG! She told the mag:

“I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce. And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce. So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumors.’ He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”

First of all, that’s SO embarrassing for him! It could also be why Will was so touchy about Chris talking about his (pretend) wife? We say pretend because Jada just revealed she and Will have been living completely separate lives since 2016, though she hasn’t filed for divorce. While it’s unclear when exactly Chris shot his shot, she had plenty of opportunities to test things out with him if she wanted. Oof…

We don’t think the Grown Ups alum will ever be taking the Red Table Talk host out on a date, tho, since she hasn’t “talked to” him since the infamous slap! She expressed:

“[Do I have] any desire to talk to Chris? Here’s my desire: I just hope that all the misunderstanding around this can be cleared up and that there can be peace.”

She is also on her “own journey of self-worth” and is being a support system for Will while letting him figure his s**t out, as she told People:

“For a lot of years I’ve taken on a lot of responsibility thinking that I’m responsible for a lot of things that just aren’t my responsibility. Part of my codependency. […] I’m going to be by his side, but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself. [I’m] finding a way to support him without trying to take away or deal with it for him, what he has to be with.”

Every time we peel back a layer of this onion, the dynamic between this trio gets messier!

Reactions, Perezcious readers? Can you believe Chris asked Jada on a date?! Sound OFF (below)!

[Image via MEGA/WENN]