Chris Rock 'never got a private apology' from Will Smith after Oscar's slap

Chris Rock still has not received a personal one-on-one apology from his former friend Will Smith over the infamous Oscars slapgate – and feels the actor’s public mea culpa ‘meant nothing’. 

The 58-year-old comedian sparked serious controversy this week when he reignited the scandal during a Netflix stand-up special during which he delivered a humiliating blow to Will, 54, one year on from the sensational awards show.  

Chris accused Will of having ‘selective outrage’ during the show’s finale and added salt to the wound by rehashing Will’s wife Jada’s affair. But a source close to Chris tells DailyMail.com that it could have been avoided with a simple ‘I am sorry’. 

‘Chris never got a one-on-one private apology from Will, only the public one which really meant nothing,’ a source close to the comedian insisted. In fact, Will has only addressed the situation twice – once on Instagram the day after the Oscars and once in a video apology.

But the insider insisted that Chris’s decision to rehash the scandal in his Netflix show had nothing to do with seeking revenge, but was rather a way for the comedian to ‘get it all out’ and ‘be done with it’.  

‘Chris wanted to get this out once and for all and be done with it. This was very cathartic to him,’ the source added. 

The comedian certainly didn’t hold back when it came to dredging up the slapgate scandal on-stage. 

Instead, he doubled down on his attack on the A-list couple by bringing up Jada’s admitted affair with her son Jaden’s close friend, musician August Alsini, 30, in 2020. 

To a shocked audience, both live and on location, Chris said that Will had misdirected anger due to the fact that ‘his wife was f***ing her son’s friend.’  

And to add insult to injury, Chris’s humiliating blowback aired exactly one week before the the 2023 Oscars is set to take place on March 12 – an event that Will has been banned from attending for the next ten years as a result of his violent outburst at last year’s ceremony. 

However, the insider hit back at claims that Chris had any hand in the timing of the Netflix special – telling DailyMail.com: ‘Netflix decided when to run this, not Chris.’ 

Aside from the joke about Jada’s affair, Chris also took aim at Meghan Markle during his special by saying that Meghan was ‘acting all dumb’ for not realizing that the royal family are the ‘OGs of racism.’ 

This caused social media users to lash out at Chris, accusing him of being racist for bringing up the sensitive topic. 

Chris’s inner circle vehemently disagrees and told DailyMail.com, ‘Chris is not racist at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.’

‘Chris is a black man making jokes about other black people from a black person’s perspective. He has nothing but love for black people – and all people.’ 

The infamous slap occurred in March 2022 when Chris took the stage to present an Oscar for best documentary feature. Turning to Will and Jada, he said that he was ‘looking forward’ to seeing Jada in G.I. Jane, poking fun at her shaved head.

Will immediately got up on stage and socked Chris in the side of his head. After returning to his front row seat, he yelled, ‘Keep my wife’s mother f***ing name out your mouth.’ 

In the weeks that followed, Will was forced to resign from the Academy, who subsequently banned him for 10 years. 

During his Saturday night standup special, Chris shared his afterthoughts, telling the audience,  ‘Anybody that say words hurt has never been punched in the face. But I’m not a victim, baby. You’ll never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying.’

‘Everybody called him a b**ch, and who’s he hitting? Me. You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith,’ Chris joked. ‘It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.’ 

Chris then addressed why he didn’t hit Will back, saying, ‘You know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.’

The day following the attack, Will took to Instagram to apologize to Chris, writing, ‘I would like to apologize to you Chris, I was out of line and I was wrong.’ 

The only other apology came in July 2022, when Will posted a video apology, again, to Chris, saying, ‘I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.’  

In a new report published by People, a source close to Will said that he’s ‘tried unsuccessfully to make amends in the best way he could with Chris’ – although the source close to the comedian says those efforts stopped short of actually calling him in person.

Chris also blasted Meghan and Harry during his routine, taking aim at their interview with Oprah and their claims that a royal had allegedly raised concerns over the skin color of their children.

‘Like, who is this girl Meghan Markle? Seems like a nice lady – just complaining,’ Chris said. 

‘Like, didn’t she hit the light-skinned lottery?’ Chris said, joking that the the royal family the ‘OGs of racism.’ 

Chris poked fun at Meghan for telling Oprah during their sit-down interview that she didn’t know that the royal family was racist when she married Harry.

‘That’s the royal family, you didn’t Google those motherf***ers? They’re the original racists. They invented colonialism,’ Chris joked to the crowd.