Oscars 2022: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock for joke about wife Jada in a shocking moment. Watch

In what may go down as one of the most unusual moments in Oscars history, Will Smith, who is up for a best actor award, got up on stage and appeared to smack presenter Chris Rock, who made a joke about the actor’s wife. (Also read: Oscars 2022 live updates: India’s Writing with Fire loses, Will Smith slaps Chris Rock for joke about wife Jada)

Rock had said Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, was going to be in the next “G.I Jane” movie, a reference to her lack of hair. She has alopecia, according to People magazine, a disease which causes hair loss. Although ABC went silent for the exchange, Smith could be heard saying “Keep my wife’s name out of your f-ing mouth.”

When Will won the Best Actor award, he said in his speech, “I’m gonna apologise to the Academy. Im gonna apologise to my fellow nominees…art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.”

Twitter has reacted to the episode. “What just happened with chris rock and will smith,” asked a fan. “Lmaoooo wait a minute. Will Smith slapped the sh*t out of Chris Rock,” commented another. “What just happened? Was that real? Did will Smith really swing a punch at Chris rock??”

Last year, Jada had released a video on Instagram to talk about a new patch of baldness caused by alopecia, a condition that causes drastic hair loss. “Look at this line right here,” Jada, 50, said, as she showed her scalp to the camera. “Now this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide, so I thought I’d just share it so y’all not asking any questions — but you know, mama’s going to put some rhinestones in there, and I’m going to make me a little crown,” she said.

Will won in the Best Actor category for his performance in King Richard. He plays the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams in the movie.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)