Wanda Sykes is opening up about the shocking moment Will Smith open-palm slapped Chris Rock during the 2022 Academy Awards.
According to Sykes, who was also hosting the event that night, the incident took away from her moment in the spotlight.
“I mean, I loved working with Regina [Hall] and Amy [Schumer]. But like you said, it got overshadowed,” Sykes recalled during the interview with Variety after first claiming that she had forgotten about the viral moment. “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.”
Sykes claims that Smith did call her to apologize, but that she had COVID or a bad cold and did not take his call. He left an apology message, and she responded via text, saying she had received it and appreciated him reaching out.
Smith’s apology did not come right away, unlike Rock’s, who apologized to her at the Oscars After Party.
Following the slap, Smith was banned from the Academy for a decade and shunned from the industry. He has had a few movie releases that bombed in the theaters and has been focusing on his music career.