Chris Rock Returns to Oscars Party for 1st Time Since Will Smith Slap

Chris Rock is slowly returning to the Oscars festivities three years after Will Smith‘s infamous onscreen slap.

Rock, 60, attended the Vanity Fair Oscars Party on Sunday, March 2, alongside his youngest daughter, Zahra. The comedian, who shares Zahra, 20, and Lola Simone Rock, 22, with ex-wife Malaak Compton-Rock, wore a black tuxedo and was all smiles while posing for photos at the star-studded event.

This is the first time Rock has appeared at the event since his hosting debut ended with Smith, 56, slapping him. Smith, for his part, remained absent from the party after previously being banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In case you forgot, in March 2022, Smith shocked the audience when he slapped Rock following his joke about Jada Pinkett Smith‘s shaved head. Smith issued an apology for his “unacceptable and inexcusable” actions, writing via Instagram at the time, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

He continued: “I would also like to apologize to The Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Williams Family and my King Richard Family. I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us.”

Smith addressed the situation again several months later in an emotional video on his YouTube channel. “I’ve spent the last three months replaying and understanding the nuances and the complexities of what happened in that moment,” he explained in the July 2022 post. “I’m not gonna 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. There’s no part of me that thinks that’s the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”

Despite trying to contact Rock, Smith wasn’t able to mend the situation.

“The message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk. And when he is, he will reach out,” he explained. “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. … I’m trying not to think of myself as a piece of s–t. I am deeply remorseful and I am trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. Right? I’m human and I made a mistake.”

Smith clarified that his wife, 53, did not influence his decision to slap Rock, adding, “I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it. I [didn’t apologize on stage after winning because I] was fogged out by that point. It’s all fuzzy.”

Rock, meanwhile, has usually only addressed the scandal during comedy specials or stand-up sets. “People asked me if it hurt,” Rock told the audience in his March 2023 comedy special Selective Outrage. “Yes, that s—t hurt! I got hit so hard, I heard ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”

After the controversy died down, Pinkett Smith made headlines after revealing she and Smith had actually quietly separated in 2016.

“I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she told Today in October 2023.

When asked why the pair didn’t file for divorce, Pinkett Smith clarified that they weren’t “ready” to officially end their marriage. “[We’re] still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, right, and in regards to how do we present that to people, you know?” she added. “And we hadn’t figured that out.”

Pinkett Smith and Smith, who share kids Jaden, 26, and Willow, 23, are attempting to address their issues. “We are working very hard at bringing our relationship together. Back to a life partnership,” she concluded. “We are really concentrating on healing the relationship between us. I have to be able to accept him for the human that he is. He accepts me for the human that I am, and we want to love each other there.”