Four months after Will Smith shockingly slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards back in March, the incident is still a topic of discussion. Recently, Rock’s brother, Tony Rock, appeared on the Top Billin’ with Bill Bellamy podcast, which premiered on YouTube on Thursday (July 14), and shared his thoughts on the slap heard around the world.
When Bellamy asked Tony if he felt Will Smith was embarrassed by Chris’ joke about his wife, Jada, having Alopecia, he answered, “No.”
“In the time they cut to my brother and cut back, he [Will] was already up walking [to the stage],” he continued. “So maybe it was the Jada look.”
Tony also suggested that Will may have slapped his brother because the actor was always bothered by being labeled as “soft” and that his wife, Jada, keeps talking about her past friendship with Tupac.
“[Jada] commonly talks about Tupac, her [past] relationship with Tupac,” he added. “As a married man to this woman, you’re like, ‘Damn is what I’m doing not enough?'”
Tony also acknowledged that Will might have been mad at Chris’ previous jokes about him and his wife, which may have prompted the Hollywood superstar to assault his brother. But the stand-up comic felt that Will should have talked with Chris backstage about his offending joke.
