*Tiffany Haddish has responded to the slap heard around the world on Sunday night.
We’re talking about Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards, which Haddish has called a “beautiful” moment.
“When I saw a Black man stand up for his wife. That meant so much to me,” Haddish, 42, told PEOPLE at the Governors Ball following the Oscars ceremony. Haddish and Pinkett Smith starred together in 2017’s “Girls Trip.”
In case you missed it, during the show, Rock made a joke about Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss. The actress suffers from alopecia, so Will was not amused that Rock mocked her. The veteran actor walked on stage and slapped the taste of Rock’s mouth before returning to his seat in the audience, and yelling back at the comedian, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth!”
“Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke,” said Rock — to which Will replied once again, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth!”
“I’m going to, okay?” Rock replied, before adding, “That was the … greatest night in the history of television” and presenting the award.
READ MORE: Will Smith Apologizes to Oscars + Chris Rock Won’t File Charges | WATCH
Haddish continued, “As a woman, who has been unprotected, for someone to say, ‘Keep my wife’s name out your mouth, leave my wife alone,’ that’s what your husband is supposed to do, right? Protect you.”
“And that meant the world to me. And maybe the world might not like how it went down, but for me, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives,” she added.
Haddish then asked, “Would you do that for your wife? Would you say, ‘Keep my wife’s name out your mother f—ing…’ Like, yes! Yes!”
Rock is apparently “a friend” of Will and Jada, so Haddish wants to know, “Why would you do that? He didn’t even run the joke by her, but she was hurt though.”
“If she wouldn’t have been hurt, [Will] probably wouldn’t have said nothing,” said Haddish. “But you could see he was clearly… And they exploited it. They exploited her, so ‘I have to do something’… He protected his wife.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Variety that Rock has “declined to file a police report” following the altercation with Smith.
After assaulting Rock, Will won his first Academy Award on Sunday night in the best actor category for his role as Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, in the biopic “King Richard.”
During his acceptance speech, he offered his apologies to the Academy for the incident involving Rock. Smith talked about being a “protector” and said, “I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse and have people talk people about you. In this business, you gotta have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and pretend that’s ok.”
Watch the moment via the clip below.
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