The 2022 Oscars slap will go down in TV history, but it’s still an open wound for the ceremony’s co-hosts, as Wanda Sykes shared her reaction to the event during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The comedian sat down with host Ellen DeGeneres and expressed her shock over the event, which has become the most-talked-about moment of the annual awards show. Recalling the evening, Sykes shared that she’d been backstage at the moment when Will Smith walked up to the mic to slap presenter Chris Rock after he made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada.
Once Sykes returned from backstage, she had to be clued into the action that had just gone down onstage. Initially, Sykes says, “I just felt so awful for my friend Chris. It was sickening. I physically felt ill and I’m still a little traumatized by it.”
(Credit: ABC)
As she opened up more about the night’s shocking moment, she added, “For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award… I was like, ‘How gross is this?’ This is just the wrong message,” she continued.
“You assault somebody, you get escorted out of the building, and that’s it,” Sykes said. “But for them to let him continue, I thought it was gross. I wanted to be able to run out after he won and say, ‘Unfortunately, Will couldn’t be here tonight…’”
And it wasn’t just Rock that Sykes felt bad for, she was also upset on behalf of herself and her fellow hosts Amy Schumer and Regina Hall. “I know [Will] apologized to Chris,” Sykes noted. “But… we were the hosts, this is ‘our house,’ we’re gonna take care of y’all tonight make sure you have a good time, and no one has apologized to us. And we worked really had to put that show together.”
See her opening up on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the clip, below, for a full picture of Sykes’ reaction.
