Steve Harvey Says He Lost Respect For Will Smith After Oscars Slap

Host Steve Harvey is giving his take on the infamous Oscars slap that occurred last month.

At the 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony, presenter Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and her hair loss condition, known as alopecia. Although Smith first laughed at the joke, he later got on stage before slapping Rock and cursing him out.

During a recent speaking engagement at Georgia State University, the “Family Feud” host gave his take on the Oscars slap.

During the event, Harvey apparently called Smith’s slap a “punk move,” as reported by Deadline. Harvey went on to say that he has “lost a lot of respect for” the “King Richard” actor and new Oscar winner since the incident.

“I’m a Christian, but I’m really undeveloped,” Harvey continued. “I don’t have high-level Christianity. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m like a 2. That’s the level of Christianity I can work on.”

“You slap T.D. Jakes, he’ll turn the other cheek. You slap me? If you sit back in your seat, Jada would have to move out of the way. That’s the type of Christian I am,” Harvey said.

Although the Academy doesn’t plan on taking Smith’s Oscar away, it doesn’t seem that he’s about to get another one in the near future. The “Independence Day” actor has been banned from all Academy events, both in-person and virtual, for the next ten years.

A source close to the family told Heat Magazine UK that “There have been problems for years, but they’re barely speaking right now.” They added that “ever since the Oscars scandal, the tension between them has been palpable.”

However, the source warned that the divorce could quickly turn ugly.

“If they were to split, Will has a fortune of $350 million that Jada would be entitled to under California law,” they explained. “It could be one of the ugliest divorces in showbiz history and drag on longer than Angelina [Jolie] and Brad [Pitt] did.”

They added, “Will obviously doesn’t want that but there is only so much he can take. Will has made no secret of how uncomfortable he feels about Jada sharing every personal detail of their marriage. He had so much pressure on him from big studios to sell their movies, and you have to be squeaky clean. This is the last straw and could force him to finally end things.”

In the 2019 clip seen above, Jada mentions that therapist Esther Perel will be coming to their Facebook Watch show “Red Table Talk.” She then asks the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” actor, “Would you say she has been instrumental in you and I redefining our relationship?”

“I would say, don’t just start filming me without asking me,” an uncomfortable Will replies.

“Esther, come help us, please, I’m still dealing with foolishness,” Jada says as she turns the camera back to herself.

“Don’t. Don’t just…” Will responds. “My social media presence is my bread and butter. So you can’t just use me for social media. Don’t just start rolling… I’m standing in my house. Don’t start rolling.”

Jada ends the video by saying, “Please watch Esther at the Red Table because she’s helped us a lot. Can’t you tell?”

Many users were disturbed by the video. “I cannot imagine the unrelenting, never ending torture of having to live with that woman…day and night, always on edge, never knowing when she’s going to do/say something else to hurt you,” one user wrote. “He looks so sad and empty. This video reeks of abuse.”

“So this third party she's referring to has ‘helped them redefine their relationship’ and yet when Will asks for consent/makes a boundary Jada tramples it and says this third party needs to come back and help her deal with Will's ‘foolishness,” another noted. “This is called Triangulation and is a tactic of abuse.”

“Literally gaslighting him too,” another user pointed out. “He politely requests not to be filmed - calls him foolish for it. Demands answers and forces her views and questions on him when he's made the boundary clear. Then undermines him and the relationship because of it.”