Jada Pinkett Smith Briefly Addresses Oscars Slap on 'Red Table Talk'

On the season five opener of 'Red Table Talk', Jada Pinkett Smith addressed the Oscars 2022 incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock.

Jada Pinkett Smith has brought herself to the table. On the season five premiere of Red Table Talk, the actress opened the episode with a written statement addressing the Oscars 2022 incident, where her husband Will Smith slapped Chris Rock after making a joke about Pinkett Smith's shaved head.

“Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing,” the statement began. “Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls.”

“Until then… the table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring and healing testimonies like that of our incredibly impressive first guest,” the statement concludes. “Thanks for joining us.”

Prior to being slapped by Smith at the Oscars, Rock joked about Pinkett Smith's shaved head, referencing 1997 action film G.I. Jane. Will Smith has since apologized for the incident, but Rock recently told an audience during his Ego Death World Tour that he will not speak on being slapped until he gets paid.

Janelle Monáe also appeared on the premiere episode of Red Table Talk to promote her The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories Of Dirty Computer, also bringing her mother, Janice Hawthorne to the red table. While opening up about the LGBTQIA+ community and womanhood, Monáe came out as nonbinary, according to Out. The singer still uses she/her pronouns.

"Somebody said, 'If you don’t work out the things that you need to work out first before you share with the world, then you’ll be working it out with the world,'" she shared. "That’s what I didn’t want to do. So I thought I needed to have all my answers correct, I don’t want to say the wrong thing."