It’s been since March of this year (20222), that we’ve all last heard a peep out of Will Smith, who’s typically known for his positive, upbeat personality. However, this time…the man is clearly emotional, somber, and remorseful. Will has resurfaced in an emotional video message to his fans, which he shared online Friday morning.

In his video message he admits that he is “deeply remorseful” for slapping the bejeezus outta Chris Rock at Oscars 2022 a few months back.

Will’s video first starts off with words on the screen that read, “It’s been a minute. Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work…,” the statement continued. “You asked a lot of fair questions that I wanted to take some time to answer.”

He can then be heard sighing, before stepping onto the screen to address why he did not apologize directly to Chris Rock shortly after slapping, as Will was accepting his ‘best actor’ award for his “King Richard Role.”

“I was fogged out by that point,” Smith confessed. “It’s all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out. So I will say to you Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you are ready to talk.”

 

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Will then went on to apologize to Chris’s mother and brother/comedic actor, Tony Rock — whom Will had a great friendship with. Though, he has now admitted that his friendship with Tony is likely a done dada:

“We had a great relationship,” Smith says. “Tony Rock was my man and this is probably irreparable.”

FYI: Tony Rock and Will go way back… Tony starred on the Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith produced 2007 sitcom, “All of Us.”

As y’all already know, Chris and Will go far back as well…except their relationship has been filled with crazy tension throughout the years. Chris had reportedly said some foul things about Will and Jada in the past; and Jada once seemingly stirred up beef with Chris in the past (i.e. the time Jada called out Chris Rock for hosting the Oscar Awards a few years ago, when #OscarsSoWhite was trending on social media, over the organization’s lack of inclusion).

Will also addressed the question of whether Jada — who suufers from alopecia — asked him to do something after Chris cracked his “G.I. Jane” joke about her shaved head at the Oscars. Will said that she did not.

Will confessed that he’s “spent the last three months replaying and understanding the nuance and the complexities of what happened in that moment. … I’m not going to try to unpack all of that right now, but I can say to all of you, there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” he says. “There’s no part of me that thinks that is the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”

Smith then ended his video with a very transparent and profound message:

“Disappointing people is my central trauma,” he says.” I hate when I let people down so it hurts.” And to his supporters, Will stated “to putting light and love and joy into the world. … If you hang on I promise we’ll be able to be friends again,” he concluded.

Listen, we’re all human, and most of us have at least one moment in our lives where we’ve looked back on it and realized, ‘Damn…I shouldn’t have done that…it was stupid.’ Only difference is we didn’t have millions of eyes watching us screw up in real time. Therefore, I commend Will for being man enough to publicly acknowledge that moment for him, that is not easy. And I most definitely commend Chris Rock for being man enough to maintain his composure in that now-infamous Oscars-slap-moment.

Hopefully, in the future (hopefully the near future), we’ll see Will and Chris unite to work on a project together or something…now THAT would be one of the biggest moments in Hollywood…hands down.