In the latest episode of her Red Table Talk Facebook Watch show, Jada Pinkett Smith broke her silence on the controversial Oscars moment involving her husband Will Smith and comedian Chris Rock.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, Rock, 57, was on stage to present the award for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Oscars when he made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Smith, 53, walked up on stage and slapped Rock before telling the comedian to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
Smith, who rendered an apology in the aftermath of the incident, has since been banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years. Smith also announced his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
But in her recent episode, Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia, said she hopes her husband and the comedian bury the hatchet. She also used the episode to spread awareness about the hair loss disorder.
“Now, about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile,” Pinkett Smith said on her show. “The state of the world today, we need them both, and we all actually need one another more than ever.
“Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together.”
“Considering what I’ve been through with my own health and what happened at the Oscars, thousands have reached out to me with their stories,” she added.
One of the guests on her show was Nicole Ball, the mother of a 12-year-old girl who committed suicide after she was bullied over her hair loss. Ball’s daughter Rio Allred died less than two weeks before the Oscars incident. A physician who was also a guest on the show shed some light on the disorder.
Per the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, the disorder is a “common autoimmune skin disease, causing hair loss on the scalp, face and sometimes on other areas of the body.” The foundation also said alopecia areata “affects as many as 6.8 million people in the U.S.” and “people of all ages, both sexes and all ethnic groups can develop alopecia areata.”
“I think the part that makes it most difficult for me is that it comes and goes. You’re going through a spell of something, and [you’ve] got to shave your head,” said Pinkett Smith about the disorder.
