Good sports! Regina Hall made a joke at the expense of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith during the 2022 Oscars — and the couple handled it like champs.
The Little star, 51, mentioned the A-list couple while hosting the 2022 Oscars on Sunday, March 27, during a bit where she said certain audience members’ COVID-19 tests had been “lost.” Hall called actors including Bradley Cooper, Simu Liu and Timothée Chalamet up to the stage, and it quickly became clear that the only people with allegedly missing tests were her (single!) Hollywood crushes.
“Will Smith, you’re married, but you’re on the list,” Hall quipped. “Looks like Jada approved it!”
The Magic Mike XXL actress, 50, laughed hysterically while her husband, 53, looked slightly embarrassed. “Get on up here,” Hall said, beckoning Will to join her and her would-be suitors on stage. The Oscar nominee, however, made a sheepish face and stayed put.
Hall was seemingly referencing Will’s admission that he and his wife haven’t always had a monogamous relationship. “Jada never believed in conventional marriage … Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship,” the Ali actor told GQ in September 2021. “So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up.”
The “Miami” rapper said the duo’s marriage was initially monogamous, but it changed as they got older. “There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection?” he continued. “And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
In July 2020, the twosome, who tied the knot in 1997, admitted that they briefly separated after Jada had an “entanglement” with August Alsina. “It was a relationship, absolutely,” the Matrix Reloaded star explained during an episode of Red Table Talk. “We actually became really, really good friends. And it all started with him just needing help, me wanting to help his health, his mental state.”
Though the Smiths eventually reconciled, the Men in Black star said that he briefly worried their marriage wouldn’t survive the tension. “I really felt like we could be over,” he said.
One year later, Will hinted that his wife wasn’t the only person who took advantage of the “trust and freedom” of their open marriage. “The public has a narrative that is impenetrable,” he told GQ. “Once the public decides something, it’s difficult to impossible to dislodge the pictures and ideas and perceptions.”
