Will Smith, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith’s history goes back way beyond the 2022 Oscars slap.
Pinkett Smith revealed in her new memoir, “Worthy,” that Rock, 58, asked her out on a date amid rumors she was divorcing Will, 55, a few years prior.
The “Girls Trip” star, 52, explained to People ahead of the book’s debut: “I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce.”
She continued, “And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce,” she continued. “So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’
“And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumors.’ He was appalled,” Jada recalled. “And he profusely apologized and that was that.”
The Post has reached out to Rock’s rep for comment.
The trio’s paths crossed again when the comedian made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s clean-shaven head at the awards ceremony last year.
At the event, Rock guffawed while presenting an award, saying that he couldn’t wait to see the actress in “G.I. Jane 2.”
The “Summertime” singer then walked up to the “Everybody Hates Chris” creator on stage and smacked him in front of millions of viewers.
Subsequently, Smith was banned from attending the Academy Awards for 10 years.
Pinkett Smith looked back on the incident with the outlet, revealing she’s not spoken to Rock since the scandal.
“[Do I have] any desire to talk to Chris? Here’s my desire: I just hope that all the misunderstanding around this can be cleared up and that there can be peace,” she sighed.
The “Bad Moms” actress, who suffers from the hair loss condition alopecia, claimed she wasn’t that offended by the funnyman’s comments at the time.
“I mean, that’s what comedians do,” she stated. “I would just have to say that I am not really here to make any judgment on how people decide to express themselves and express their art.”
She added: “I’ll say that several times I’ve had my feelings hurt, for sure. I’ve had my feelings hurt a lot by Chris. But at the end of the day, too, being in the spotlight, it comes with the territory.”
Years prior, in 2016 — the same year the couple separated — Will Smith did not receive an Oscar nomination for his acclaimed performance in the film “Concussion,” and the acting nominations recognized no actors of color. Pinkett Smith supported the #OscarsSoWhite movement, calling for a boycott of the award show at the time.
Rock, who was hosting that year, joked about the star’s actions during his show monologue.
“I talk about this in the book, I think that there might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I as far as the 2016 Oscars. I think that he might’ve taken offense, which I meant no harm in offending. That wasn’t my intention. But I do think that there’s a big misunderstanding there,” she told People.
“I probably should have called him and gone, ‘Hey, are you okay? And just know that although I’m speaking out about the Oscars, I do wish you the best and I just want you to know that’ — me taking the time to have called him and said that, just to touch base. But his feelings might’ve been hurt,” she continued. “All we can ever do is just look at our part and see where could I have done something that would’ve seemed as if … Whatever misunderstanding might’ve been created, what could I have done to avoid that misunderstanding? The one thing that I think about is that call.”
Additionally, she admitted to “not really recognizing the level of pressure” Rock was under at the time. Rock allegedly called her after the 2016 joke and she thought they had moved on.
