Wanda Sykes has revealed Will Smith called her to apologise for ruining her big night at the Oscars.
The 61-year-old comedian was among the presenters at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles in March 2022 but her glitzy evening was overshadowed by drama after Will stormed the stage and slapped host Chris Rock for making a joke about the actor’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith – and Sykes later revealed the incident made her feel “physically ill” and she hadn’t received an apology from Smith.
However, Sykes has now given and update and revealed she did eventually get a call from the actor. She told Variety: “He did. He called. I had COVID or a bad cold. I just texted to say: ‘Hey, I got your message. Thank you. I can’t talk.’ But he did call.”
Sykes previously opened up about the incident during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show just days after the Oscars.
She told the host: “We had just introduced Chris from our bit, so I ran to my trailer because I wanted to watch him.
“I was getting changed and watching him. Then the moment I went from my trailer – because I wanted to be in the house to watch – from that moment to when I got to the monitor backstage, I just saw Will leaving the stage and everything was quiet.
“I was like: ‘What happened? What happened?’ And everybody was like: ‘Oh my God.’ And then Will just starts cursing from his seat. And I was just like: ‘Is this really happening?'”
She went on to add: “And then someone showed me on the video and said: ‘Yeah, he smacked Chris.’ And I just felt so awful for my friend Chris.
“It was sickening. I physically felt ill. I’m still a little traumatized by it.”
After the slap, Smith returned to his seat but later returned to the stage to pick up the Best Actor prize for his role in King Richard – and Sykes is admaant the actor shouldn’t have been allowed to stay after he slapped Rock.
She said: “For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like: ‘How gross is this? This is just the wrong message.’
“You assault somebody, you get escorted out of the building and that’s it. For them to let him continue, I thought it was gross.”
