Wanda Sykes says Chris Rock apologized to her at an Oscars after-party for his incident with Will Smith taking over the show
- Wanda Sykes says Chris Rock apologized to her at an after-party for his Oscars incident with Will Smith.
- On "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Wednesday, Sykes shared she felt "awful" for her friend Rock.
Wanda Sykes, one of the three Oscars hosts, shared her thoughts on the incident between Chris Rock and Will Smith during the awards show, calling it "sickening" and saying she's still "traumatized."
While appearing on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Wednesday, the comedian gave her account of the incident to DeGeneres. Though she didn't see the slap happen in real-time, she caught the aftermath, and someone showed her a video of it. "I just felt so awful for my friend Chris," Sykes told DeGeneres.
She called the moment "sickening," adding: "I physically felt ill, and I'm still a little traumatized by it."
DeGeneres agreed, and Sykes, who hosted the show alongside Amy Schumer and Regina Hall, said she found it "gross" that the Academy allowed Smith to stay and accept his award after the best actor winner slapped Rock for a bald joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has the autoimmune hair-loss condition alopecia.
"This is just the wrong message," Sykes said. "If you assault somebody, you get escorted out of the building and that's it, but for them to let him continue, I thought it was gross."
Sykes went on to joke that if Smith had been asked to leave before his category was announced, she would have liked to run out and say, "Uh, unfortunately Will couldn't be here tonight."
According to Sykes, she saw Rock at talent manager Guy Oseary's Oscars after-party, and the first thing he said when she walked up to him was: "I'm so sorry."
"And, I'm like 'why are you apologizing?'" she recalled telling Rock, who opted not to press charges against Smith that night. "He's like 'it was supposed to be your night. You and Amy and Regina, y'all were doing such a great job. I'm so sorry. This is now going to be about [the incident].'"
Sykes is the second 2022 Oscars host to react to the incident publicly. As previously reported by Insider, Schumer wrote on Instagram that she's "still triggered and traumatized" after Smith slapped Rock onstage.
Several other celebrities, both present at the awards show and not, have also expressed their opinions on the matter, including Tiffany Haddish, Serena Williams, and Judd Apatow.
During his acceptance speech at the Oscars that night, Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees for his actions. On Monday, he apologized to Rock via a statement shared on Instagram. The Academy said on Monday that they're launching a formal review to investigate the incident further.