Serena Williams has finally broken her silence about Will Smith’s shocking attack on Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars.
The tennis star has said that everyone deserves forgiveness in response to the question of how she felt about the infamous slap that led to the actor’s fall from grace.
Smith, who won last year’s Best Actor Oscar gong, stunned the world after he stormed onto the stage and hit the comedian across the face for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett’s shaved head.
Pinkett suffers from alopecia, which causes hair loss.
Williams, 41, had kept quiet about the incident for almost a year.
But in a chat with Gayle King on CBS on Thursday (February 2), she finally opened up.
King asked: “The King Richard had that moment at the Oscars, what did you feel about that?"
“I thought it was such an incredible film, and I feel that there was an incredible film after that with Questlove that was overshadowed," Williams said.
“But I also feel that I have been in a position where I’ve been under a lot of pressure and I’ve made a tremendous amount of mistakes.
“I’m the person that’s like, ‘I’ve been there, I’ve made a mistake. It’s not the end of the world.’
“We’re all imperfect and we’re all human and let’s just be kind to each other.
“So, that’s often forgotten a lot," she concluded.
Smith, who has since apologised for his actions, has faced immense fallout from the slap, which happened in March.
Along with damage to his previously pristine reputation, Smith was banned from the Oscars for 10 years, and many of his film projects were put on hold.
In recent months, however, he’s slowly been making a comeback with the recent release of his current film, Emancipation.
King Richard tells the story of Williams and her sister Venus Williams’ rise to tennis domination under the mentorship of their father, Richard Williams, who Smith portrays in the film.
