Did Chris Rock want to date Jada Pinkett Smith before Will Smith slap?

While I love to advocate that celebrities have a right to privacy and shouldn’t be treated as if they signed away their lives in exchange for fame, it becomes hard to stand by the sentiment when a celebrity is eagerly giving away information about their personal life and kickstarting speculation sprees all by themselves. That mini-rant is to dash any lingering guilt I have before diving into the freshly revealed details — by none other than Jada Pinkett Smith — that throw a whole new light on the Oscars 2022 slap fiasco and give new meaning to why Chris Rock really dragged her “entanglement” while addressing the slap after a year.

After Will Smith marched up to the stage of the Oscars in 2022 and slapped Chris Rock for mocking Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia, the gossip mill kept churning enough ammo around the topic for months. Whenever it faltered, someone popped up to speak their mind on the months-old issue, ensuring that the memory of the slap remained minty-fresh. This time, it is Pinkett Smith herself.

In the last 24 hours, Pinkett Smith has left the world reevaluating the last 7 years as she revealed that she and Will have been separated since 2016 as they were “exhausted with trying” — which has brought old rumors to the present. As if that startling revelation wasn’t enough, the Matrix actress has now gone ahead and shared with People that Chris Rock — the comedian who publicly mocked her baldness and later blamed her for the Oscars 2022 drama — actually wanted to date her when rumors of her and Will’s divorce starting swirling.

“I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce. And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce. 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. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”

So, there was a point in time when Rock wanted to date Pinkett Smith. But the next immediate question this revelation begs is when did the stand-up comedian share this particular desire with the actress because as she correctly highlighted, rumors of her and the Suicide Squad star’s divorce have been around for years, which put a new spring in their steps every once in a while.

When did Chris Rock ask Jada Pinkett Smith out?

Now, we are working on a moral ground here, which includes the fact that Rock was married until 2016. So, hopefully, he asked Pinkett Smith out after that, right? But that brings in the 2016 Oscar drama where as per Rock’s account in 2023, Pinkett Smith asked him to quit the gig of hosting the awards ceremony that year as her husband’s film Concussion wasn’t nominated.

“Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars. I shouldn’t host ’cause her man didn’t get nominated for Concussion. And then he gives me a [beep] concussion. That’s how it is – she starts it, I finish it, OK? That’s what the [beep] happened. Nobody’s picking on her. She started this [beep].”

Based on this chaotic timeline, was Rock just pissed about Pinkett Smith expecting him to quit the Oscars way back in 2016 when he chose to make fun of her in 2022, or did this eclectic mix of emotions also include the sting of rejection? We may never know as so far he hasn’t responded to the new comments, or maybe we will when Rock — in his bid to find fresh fodder for his next comedy special — decides to discuss (read: diss) when he mustered the courage to ask out Pinkett Smith.