'It really affected him': Leslie Jones says Chris Rock sought therapy with children after Will Smith slap
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Iconic comedian Chris Rock has two daughters, Lola Simone Rock and Zahra Savannah Rock, whom he co-parents with his former spouse, Malaak Compton-Rock.
Rock and Compton-Rock separated in 2014, and their divorce was officially concluded two years later.
Leslie Jones reveals Chris Rock's post-Oscars therapy
Leslie Jones has now revealed that her friend Chris Rock pursued therapy following the incident where Will Smith slapped him at the 2022 Oscars.
“That shit was humiliating,” she told People. “It really affected him. People need to understand his daughters, his parents, saw that. He had to go to counseling with his daughters.”
Rock's two daughters Lola and Zahra are 21 and 19 years old, respectively.
She added, “For a long ass time I was just mad. Chris Rock did a fucking joke. I know Will, too… I was like, you couldn’t handle that shit afterwards. This is the Oscars. The whole world is watching. I was like, ‘Chris, when he got up why didn’t you run?’ I would’ve been running around that stage like, ‘Will, calm down. Jada, call your man!'”
Jones, viewing the event from her home that evening, expressed being "enraged" when she witnessed the incident unfold on live TV.
“You don’t know that I was going to jump in my car and roll up there,” she said. “I was so fucking mad on so many levels.”
She also suggested that Will Smith, who received the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in 'King Richard' moments later, should have attempted to reconcile with Chris Rock during his acceptance speech. Although Smith offered apologies to the Academy and his fellow nominees in his speech, he refrained from directly apologizing to Rock.
Chris Rock's joke about Jada Pinkett Smith
The startling incident at the March 2022 Oscars unfolded after Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith's wife, while presenting the Best Documentary Feature award.
Rock humorously implied that Pinkett Smith was preparing for a sequel to 'GI Jane', an apparent reference to the actress's shaved head, a condition she has openly discussed to be due to alopecia.
In response, Smith took the stage and physically struck Rock. Upon returning to his seat, he vehemently shouted at Rock, saying, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!”.
A day later, Smith directly apologized to Rock through an Instagram post. He later issued a second apology via a video message in July 2022.
“There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” he said.
Following the altercation, Smith declared his resignation from the Academy and received a 10-year ban from participating in Academy events. Nonetheless, he remains eligible for potential future Oscar nominations and victories, and he will retain the Oscar he received at the 2022 ceremony.
Jones expressed her belief that Smith had the opportunity to "rectify" the situation that evening while accepting his Oscar. She proposed that he could have made a statement akin to: “I shouldn’t have did that. Bring Chris out. I can not accept the Oscar right now because that was fucking wrong.”