Will Smith is apparently being blasted by viewers for an ‘inappropriate’ performance on stage with a Spanish dancer.
The 56-year-old Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star reportedly got a bit too close to singer, India Martínez, 39, while at the Premio Lo Nuestro award show, held in Miami on February 20.
The duo were performing their new track ‘First Love’ to the masses when they shared an intimate moment, hugging and even coming close to sharing a kiss on stage.
The actor appeared to get quite close to the singer (Instagram/@india_martines_oficial)
Eagle-eyed fans also noticed Smith had placed his hand on the Spanish flamenco dancer and singer’s bottom.
Their apparent closeness even extended off-stage too, as Martinez shared a candid snap of her hugging the ‘Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It’ hitmaker with her legs wrapped around his waist.
The father-of-three could be seen grinning in the embrace as he hugged her back.
Fans spotted the heated chemistry between the singers and have been left wondering if it was an act, a moment of passion to illuminate the song or if there is something more.
The pair appeared very close, on and off stage (Instagram/@india_martines_oficial)
Taking to Twitter, viewers said Smith was ‘feeling up India’s backside’ and speculated if the singers are ‘a thing’, particularly amid Smith’s complicated marriage with Jada Pinkett Smith.
Some viewers said it was ‘inappropriate’ and ‘controversial.’
“Inappropriate. Even if it is ‘entertainment’,” another disgruntled fan wrote on Instagram.
However, many appeared to support the Oscar winner, celebrating that the ‘Fresh Prince is back’ and said he looked ‘happy.’
“Will Smith is out here enjoying life,” another wrote in support of the pair’s spicy performance, while a fourth snapped back at critics to let the Hollywood star ‘have his fun.’
Will Smith with his famous offspring, Willow and Jada, at the Grammys earlier this month (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
“Doesn’t Will Smith kiss people [on] screen while acting? Do people not understand performance and showmanship,” another fan wrote.
The flirtatious moment comes as Smith is still technically married to Pinkett Smith, though the pair announced they had been separated ‘for years’ in 2023 in a shock revelation.
The married couple of almost 30 years, who share two children, Jaden and Willow, have been open about their marital issues, including the mom’s affair with family friend, August Alsina, in 2020.
In Pinkett Smith’s book, Worthy, she initially described their separation as ‘divorce’, but clarified it was ‘not a divorce on paper.’
Will and his wife, Jada, before the iconic Oscars moment (Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)
Yet, the apparent power couple claim even despite their distance, they continue to work on their relationship.
Throughout their separation since 2016, the pair have continued to support each other in public, most notably when Smith shocked the world by slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars as the comedian made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.
The viral meme moment saw Smith make his way to the stage and strike the presenter while saying ‘keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth.’
Interestingly, the talk show co-host said it was this moment that the pair appeared to reconcile as she described it as the ‘holy slap’.
Speaking to Extra, the 53-year-old said: “That was a moment that I knew I would never leave Will’s side after all those years thinking I would.”
“I didn’t go in there as his wife, but I was leaving as his wife,” she added.
Will Smith will certainly want to forget about slapping comedian Chris Rock at Sunday’s 94th Academy Awards show.
However, those who do want to cherish that iconic moment forever now have the opportunity to do so, thanks to the medium of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
On OpenSea, one of the world’s biggest NFT marketplaces, you can already find the ‘Will Smith Slap Dao‘ collection, which has the entire incident available to buy in digital form.
A total of 1,999 JPEGs of the 1 min 30 sequence can be found, with a variety of meme text overlays on offer.
The slap instantly became one of the most viral moments of the year, as a clearly incensed Smith stormed the stage to slap Rock, who had just made a joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.
Alamy
The star of Men in Black and King Richard (for which he won an Oscar this year) appeared to take umbrage with a joke that Rock made about his wife’s alopecia – leading to the now infamous slap on stage.
Smith has since apologised to the Academy for his actions, but that hasn’t stopped the meme economy from going into overdrive, with some of the NFTs from the slap collection being sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
As mobile syrup.com notes, the most expensive JPEG is currently listed for 69 ETH – which is almost £180,000 ($235,427).
However, those who aren’t quite in the market for an NFT that eye-wateringly expensive can also purchase their own JPEG from the Slap Dao collection for as little as 0.003 ETH – or around £8.
As things stand, 721 people have already purchased an NFT from this collection, making the creator very well off indeed.
Little is known about the origin of the collection, meaning that you should always exercise a great deal of caution before spending a vast sum on any of it NFTs.
Like any hype driven collection, expect interest to wane in the coming days and weeks, as the world slowly moves on to the next great celebrity scandal.
Nevertheless, the ‘Will Smith Slap Dao’ is yet another example of how cryptocurrencies and NFTs are changing the world around us – for better or worse.
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Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about her side of the infamous Oscars slap story.
There have been so many stories about the moment that Will Smith walked onto the stage at the 94th Academy Awards and struck host Chris Rock.
The comedian had just made a bald joke about Jada and Will quickly stepped in and told him to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
However, the situation escalated when Smith approached Rock and slapped him across the face and then sat back down as if nothing happened.
The incident sparked a million headlines and there was so much commentary about it over the following days, weeks and months.
However, now we’ve finally been told about what Jada thought of the whole thing.
In an interview with PEOPLE, she explained that she thought it was scripted.
“I thought, ‘This is a skit’,” she said.
“I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him’. It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.”
It definitely wasn’t a skit, even though there were some conspiracy theories about whether Rock and Smith had coordinated it.
She revealed that the first thing she said to her husband once they were alone was ‘are you okay’.
Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Following the slap, the Oscars continued on Will received the Academy Award for Best Actor for King Richard only moments later.
In her upcoming memoir, titled Worthy, she said that she was always going to be ‘by his [Will’s] side’ following the infamous slap.
But she also needed to allow ‘him to have to figure this out for himself’.
Smith eventually apologized for the slap and he received a ban from the Academy for 10 years.
In a video, the Oscar-winner said: “I was fogged out by that point. 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’re ready to talk.”
He added: “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.
“There’s no part of me that thinks that’s the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”
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Jada Pinkett Smith was shocked Will Smith called her ‘wife’ as he slapped Chris Rock at Oscars
The actress has revealed why Will calling her ‘his wife’ was the most shocking part of the infamous ‘Oscars’ slap
Almost two years on and we’re all still talking about Will Smith’s infamous ‘Oscars slap’, but now, Jada Pinkett Smith has reveals her most surprising moment of the shocking moment.
This comes after Jada revealed she and husband Will have been ‘secretly separated’ for the last seven years, ahead of the release of her new book, Worthy.
But back to the Oscars – viewers of the 2022 Academy Awards were stunned when Best Actor nominee Will slapped Chris Rock across the face during his presentation of the Best Documentary Feature prize.
Will, 55, then returned to his seat shouting “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth” at the comedian after he made a joke about Jada’s shaved head, which she has been shaving since 2012 due to alopecia.
Later that evening, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star scooped up the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Richard Williams, father and coach to sporting legends Venus and Serena Williams, in the biographical drama, King Richard.
In his acceptance speech, Will apologized to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and his fellow nominees for his behavior – but not to Chris.
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
However, for Jada, ‘the slap heard across the world’ wasn’t the most shocking event of the evening for her personally.
Instead, she has revealed that she was most surprised by Will referring to her as ‘his wife’ — something he hadn’t called her in years.
The actress and talk show host recalled the moment in an interview with NBC as she promoted her upcoming memoir.
“First of all, I’m really shocked, because mind you, I’m not there. We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” Jada told Hoda Kotb.
“I’m like, ‘What is going on right now? Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth?’ I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know what’s going on.”
She also spoke about her thoughts on the joke in which Chris flippantly referred to her as G.I. Jane.
NBC
“I did that eye roll not so much for me — and I think this is really important — but the fact that there could be a jab at alopecia,” she said.
Jada shared that during a commercial break following the incident, Rock came up to her and apologized for his comments, but she was more focused on what had happened with Will.
As previously mentioned, Jada recently revealed that her and Will have been separated since 2016 but kept up the appearance of a happily married couple in the years that followed.
Speaking about their relationship now, she said: “We’re still figuring it out. We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
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Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that before the infamous ‘Oscars slap’, Chris Rock once asked her out on a date.
It emerged today that Jada has been secretly separated from husband Will Smith for the last seven years, news that was revealed in an interview ahead of the release of her new book, Worthy.
And this wasn’t the only bombshell Jada dropped as it turns out upon hearing that the Gotham star was separating from her husband, comedian Chris Rock decided to make his move which instantly backfired.
This wouldn’t be the only awkward interaction the trio would have though, with the infamous ‘Oscars slap’ happening only a few years later in 2022. Watch the awkward award ceremony below:
Jada, 52, made the shocking revelation about her marriage this week as she promoted her new memoir, Worthy, which is due to be released next week on October 17.
Although she mentioned the awkward moment with Chris Rock in her book, the Girls Trip star sat with People magazine to explain just what happened.
It happened back in 2016, with Jada being plagued by rumours that she Will were separating – something that has now emerged to be true.
While she ignored them for the most part, Chris did not and decided to shoot his shot in a toe-curling phone call.
Jada explained: “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.”
Getty/Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Continuing, she explained how she quickly corrected The Longest Yard actor.
Jada explained: “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’.”
Whilst most of us would have just hung up, the Everybody Hates Chris writer immediately began to apologize – apparently ‘appalled’ by the mix-up.
Though the pair moved past the moment, it wouldn’t be the last awkward interaction that she and Chris would have.
Jada had previously called for Chris to boycott the 2016 Oscars, after no actors of colour were nominated for the coveted award.
Will had also been snubbed that year, despite appearing in the critically praised drama Concussion.
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Even with the #OscarsSoWhite movement though, Chris refused to step down as the host and even made jokes about Jada in his Netflix comedy special years later.
With this tension simmering in the background, the stage was set for the infamous Oscars slap – which became a viral moment in 2022.
After multiple jokes about his wife – seemingly aimed at her alopecia – Will shouted down Chris and ended up assaulting the host on stage in front of the entire world.
Jada claims that they’ve not spoken since the notorious night, which ended with her husband being banned from the ceremony for a decade.
