Richard Williams has broken his silence to defend Will Smith, who portrayed him in the Oscar-winning biopic King Richard, after the actor’s infamous Oscars slap.
Nearly a year after the incident, Serena and Venus Williams’ father, 81, shared his support for the 54-year-old, even claiming he had “no pity” for comedian Chris Rock, 58, who received the strike at the end.
Having recently recovered from several strokes and a series of health crises, Richard doubled down on his support for Will on Monday’s Good Morning Britain, saying: ‘I will always stand by him.
“I think he did the best he had to do, but I would never be disgusted with Mr. Smith. Actually, I appreciate Mr. Smith.”
When asked if he saw any wrongdoing in what happened at the 2022 Academy Awards, Richard said, “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
Defending: Richard Williams has broken his silence to defend Will Smith, who portrayed him in the Oscar-winning biopic King Richard, following the actor’s infamous Oscars slap
Ouch! Nearly a year after the incident, Serena and Venus Williams’ father, 81, shared his support for the 54-year-old, even claiming he had “no pity” for comedian Chris Rock, 58, who received a strike at the end of the strike.
Richard also said, “I don’t feel sorry for anyone,” in reference to Chris and that “it’s time everyone forgives Will Smith.”
The tennis coach even suggested the violence was justified because of Chris’ inappropriate joke about Will’s wife Jada, 51.
“I’m 81 years old, but when I was about 51 or younger, I killed almost everyone, so I think Mr. Smith did a lot not to.”
Richard then called for Will’s Oscars ban to be lifted and finally had a funny message for the star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
He joked, “I’ll say my message to Mr. Smith now.” Thank you so much for looking so good, so handsome!’
Chris recently unleashed a year of pent-up rage after being punched in the face by Will on his new Saturday night stand-up comedy special.
On his live stand-up special, Chris claimed that anyone who really knew about the circumstances surrounding the slap knew it wasn’t really about him – as he accused Will of “selective outrage,” lashing out at his wife having an affair.
He even brought up the fact that Jada only confessed to having an affair while interviewing her husband, noting, “His wife was her son’s goddamn boyfriend.”
Controversial: Chris recently unleashed a year of pent-up rage after being punched in the face by Will in his new Saturday night stand-up comedy special
Chris said he still has ringing in his ears and watches the I Am Legend star’s feature film, Emancipation, “just to see him scream.”
The special came just a week before this year’s Oscars.
Audience members were eagerly waiting for Chris to speak publicly about getting punched in the face when he took the stage Saturday night.
Finally, after about two and a half hours, he finally brought it up to close the show.
“You all know what happened to me when I was beaten by Suge Smith. Everyone knows, everyone knows,’ he began.
“I was smitten at the f****** Oscars by this motherf*****. And people are like “Did it hurt?” It still hurts. I’ve got Summertime ringing in my ears, f***** drums.
“But I’m not a victim. You’ll never see me cry at Oprah or Gayle. You’ll never see it, like, ‘I couldn’t believe it and I love Men in Black.’ No, that will never happen.
“I took that punch like Pacquiao mother f*****,” he said, referring to Manny Pacquiao, a professional boxer.
Ouch: He even brought up the fact that Jada only confessed to having an affair while interviewing her husband, commenting, “His wife was her son’s goddamn boyfriend”
He noted that ‘Will Smith is considerably taller than me. We’re not the same size.
Chris joked, “Will Smith does most of his movies with his shirt off. You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off. When I’m in a movie undergoing open heart surgery, I wear a sweater.
“Smith wants to play Mohammed Ali in a movie, do you think I auditioned for that role? He played Mohammed Ali, I played Pookie in New Jack City. I played a piece of corn in Pootie Tang. S*** even in animation this motherf****** is bigger: I’m a zebra, he’s a shark.
“But Will Smith practices selective outrage because anyone who knows what happened, anyone who actually knows, knows I had nothing to do with that bastard. I had no complications.
“His wife was her son’s goddamn boyfriend.”
Before the storm: Will and Jada were pictured last year at the 2022 Academy Awards
“Now I wouldn’t normally talk about this s***,” Rock said. “But for some reason the n****** put that shit on the internet. I have no idea why two talented people would do something so damn low. What the f***.
“We’ve all been cheated, everyone here has been cheated. None of us have been interviewed by the person who cheated on us on television, like “Hey, I was blowing someone else’s head, how did that make you feel?” Why the hell would you do that?’ he asked, referring to a sit-down interview Jada gave Will in 2020.
“She hurt him a lot more than he hurt me, okay,” Rock insisted, noting that after the blow, “Everybody in the world called him ab***.”
“I tried to call the mother and offer my condolences. He didn’t answer for me.
“Everyone called him ab****,” the comedian continued. And who is he hitting? Me and **** she know he can be beaten. That’s a b****a**s***. That I fucking happened, OK. I didn’t do anything to this son of a bitch.
“Years ago his wife told me to quit the Oscars,” Rock said, referring to 2016, when Jada went on to boycott the awards as part of the #OscarsSoWhite protests.
“I shouldn’t be a host because her husband wasn’t nominated for (Concussion), the biggest piece of shit ever. She starts it, I finish it.
“No one is taking this son of a bitch — she started it. No one was bullying her. And then this n***** gives me a ****** concussion, okay. What the f*** man?’
“I love Will Smith, all my life I loved this guy – I saw him open for Run DMC at the Nassau Coliseum. I’ve rooted for Will Smith all my life and now I watch Emancipation to see him cheer. I got rooted for Masa.
“A lot of people say, ‘Chris, why didn’t you return the favor?’ Because that’s why I have parents, because I was raised,” he concluded.
‘And do you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
The other man: Jada had admitted to having an affair with singer August Alsina in an episode of her web series with her husband in 2020 (pictured in 2017)
Jada had admitted to having an affair with singer August Alsina in an episode of her web series featuring her husband in 2020.
She explained that she first met August through their son Jaden, and recalled that the singer, who would have been 23 at the time, was “very ill.”
Jada said, “And it all started with him just needing some help, I wanted to help his health, his mental state.
“Our family’s outpouring for him was primarily about his health,” she told her husband. “We found all these different resources to help him through it and from there you and I went through a really rough time.”
At that point, Will admitted, “I was done with you,” while Jada added that they decided to break up “for a while.”
“So what did you do, Jada?” Will asked, urging his wife to keep talking.
“As time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August,” Jada explained.
The mother-of-two then responded to August’s claim that Will had given her “permission” to have an affair.
“The only person who can give permission in that circumstance is myself,” she insisted.
“But what August was probably trying to communicate, because I understood how he could see it as consent because we parted amicably, and I think he wanted to make it clear he’s not a home squatter, because he’s not.”
When Will urged Jada to clarify what she meant by “entanglement,” she replied, “It was definitely a relationship.”
Jada continued, “I was in a lot of pain and very broken. During the process of that relationship I certainly realized that you can’t find happiness outside of yourself.’
Hilarious: Chris said he still has ringing in his ears and watches the I Am Legend star’s feature film, Emancipation, ‘just to see him scream’
Several years later, at the Oscars last year, Chris joked about Jada’s hair loss and commented that she looked like she was preparing for a role in a GI Jane sequel.
While Will was originally seen laughing, when the cameras turned back to Rock, he marched onstage and punched the comedian in the face,
The actor then returned to his seat and began yelling at Rock from his table, chastising him with the now-infamous line “keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”
The artist went on to receive significant backlash from much of the entertainment industry for his performance at the awards show.
Will was eventually banned from attending Academy-related events for 10 years.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
