{"id":364116,"date":"2026-04-04T23:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:33:11","slug":"wanda-sykes-says-she-caught-a-lot-of-flack-for-saying-will-smith-slap-made-her-physically-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364116\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanda Sykes Says She ‘Caught a Lot of Flack’ for Saying Will Smith Slap Made Her \u2018Physically Ill\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wanda Sykes<\/a> is addressing the mockery she faced after being horrified at the sight of her longtime friend, Chris Rock<\/a>, being infamously slapped<\/a> by Will Smith<\/a> at the 2022 Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

Sykes was a guest on the Monday (March 30) episode of The Breakfast Club<\/a> and responded to the criticism about the incident making her \u201cphysically ill.\u201d<\/a> At the time, Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith<\/a>\u2019s alopecia, making a G.I. Jane reference while presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary.<\/p>\n

Smith, who would later win the Oscar for Best Actor that evening, walked onstage to slap Rock before retreating to his seat and warning the comedian to stop speaking about his wife. The entertainer has since apologized<\/a> to Rock, who\u2019s publicly shown an inkling of forgiveness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around the 5-minute mark of the episode, Sykes admitted that she \u201ccaught a lot of flack\u201d from claiming that the incident made her \u201cphysically ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI’m like, y’all got to realize I was working that night. And I watched my coworker get popped at work,\u201d Sykes explained.<\/p>\n

Sykes was among the co-hosts of the 94th Academy Awards along with Regina King<\/a> and Amy Schumer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not supposed to happen,\u201d she continued. \u201cI was upset, like, physically upset by that. And then it just even sickened me more watching everybody just sit out there and not react and then to give that man an award afterwards. I was like, \u2018I\u2019m done with y\u2019all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sykes, who got her start in comedy as a writer for The Chris Rock Show, added that she had a \u201cnasty infection\u201d at the time that the Emancipation star called her to apologize<\/a> and \u201cdidn\u2019t even pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sykes said she \u201creceived\u201d and \u201caccepted\u201d Smith\u2019s call but suggested that she didn\u2019t want to talk further. Smith resigned from the Academy after the incident and has been banned from the organization\u2019s events for 10 years.<\/p>\n

At a post-awards afterparty, as revealed on a 2022 episode of The Ellen Show, Sykes said that Rock personally spoke to her and shared his concern that her hosting would be overshadowed by Smith slapping him.<\/p>\n

Related News\"Wanda<\/a><\/p>\n

Wanda Sykes Hilariously Roasted an Unimpressed Bill Maher at Golden Globes<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\"Wanda<\/a><\/p>\n

Wanda Sykes Says Will Smith Called Her to Apologize for Chris Rock Oscars Slap<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\"Wanda<\/a><\/p>\n

Wanda Sykes Says Kenan Thompson Is ‘Gonna Be in a Lot Of Wigs’ Following Ego Nwodim’s ‘SNL’ Exit<\/p>\n

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Making Culture Pop. Find the latest entertainment news and the best in music, pop culture, sneakers, style and original shows.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wanda Sykes is addressing the mockery she faced after being horrified at the sight of her longtime friend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[191449,430,90822,156,80366,111,139,69,191448,30527,80368],"class_list":{"0":"post-364116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-2022-academy-awards","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-chris-rock","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jada-pinkett-smith","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-physically-ill","17":"tag-wanda-sykes","18":"tag-will-smith"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}