Wanda Sykes is addressing the mockery she faced after being horrified at the sight of her longtime friend, Chris Rock, being infamously slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Sykes was a guest on the Monday (March 30) episode of The Breakfast Club and responded to the criticism about the incident making her “physically ill.” At the time, Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia, making a G.I. Jane reference while presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary.
Smith, who would later win the Oscar for Best Actor that evening, walked onstage to slap Rock before retreating to his seat and warning the comedian to stop speaking about his wife. The entertainer has since apologized to Rock, who’s publicly shown an inkling of forgiveness.
Around the 5-minute mark of the episode, Sykes admitted that she “caught a lot of flack” from claiming that the incident made her “physically ill.”
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“I’m like, y’all got to realize I was working that night. And I watched my coworker get popped at work,” Sykes explained.
Sykes was among the co-hosts of the 94th Academy Awards along with Regina King and Amy Schumer.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” she continued. “I was upset, like, physically upset by that. And then it just even sickened me more watching everybody just sit out there and not react and then to give that man an award afterwards. I was like, ‘I’m done with y’all.’”
Sykes, who got her start in comedy as a writer for The Chris Rock Show, added that she had a “nasty infection” at the time that the Emancipation star called her to apologize and “didn’t even pick up.”
Sykes said she “received” and “accepted” Smith’s call but suggested that she didn’t want to talk further. Smith resigned from the Academy after the incident and has been banned from the organization’s events for 10 years.
At a post-awards afterparty, as revealed on a 2022 episode of The Ellen Show, Sykes said that Rock personally spoke to her and shared his concern that her hosting would be overshadowed by Smith slapping him.
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