Jada Pinkett Smith says Chris Rock asked her out amid Will Smith divorce rumours

Jada Pinkett Smith says Chris Rock has previously asked her out on a date. Photos / Getty Images

Jada Pinkett Smith says comedian Chris Rock asked her to go on a date with him amid rumours she and Will Smith were divorcing.

The actress, 52, has revealed she and her husband have secretly been separated for seven years as she promotes her upcoming memoir Worthy - and she told People magazine Rock once slid into her DMs.

“I think every summer, all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce ... and this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce,” she told the outlet.

She recalled, “So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out’. And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No, Chris, those are just rumours’.

“He was appalled. And he profusely apologised and that was that.”

Rock’s representatives have been approached for comment.

Pinkett Smith said she hasn’t spoken to Rock since the Oscars slap, when her husband lashed out at the comedian for making a joke about her baldness.

She told the outlet she hopes “that there can be peace” among the three of them, explaining that she writes about the situation in her upcoming book.

The drama began at the 2016 Oscars when Smith didn’t get nominated for his role in Concussion - and only white actors received nominations, giving rise to the #OscarsSoWhite movement.

Many boycotted the awards as a result, including Pinkett Smith, who called for Rock to step down from hosting the awards ceremony that year.

Instead, he made a joke at her expense during the event, saying, “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties – I wasn’t invited.”

Reflecting on that moment, Pinkett Smith said she didn’t understand “the level of pressure [Rock] might’ve been under”.

“I probably should have called him and gone, ‘Hey, are you okay?’” she told People.

“‘And just know that although I’m speaking out about the Oscars, I do wish you the best and I just want you to know that’ - me taking the time to have called him and said that, just to touch base ... but his feelings might’ve been hurt.”

She and Rock reconciled after the 2016 incident but did not speak again until the 2022 Oscars, when Rock tried to apologise for making a joke about her baldness.

Pinkett Smith recalled, “Chris came down to the end of the stage and tried to apologise to me. He said, ‘I didn’t mean you any harm’. I said, ‘I can’t talk about this now, Chris. This is some old s***’.”

As for the joke itself, she simply said, “I mean, that’s what comedians do.”

“I would just have to say that I am not really here to make any judgment on how people decide to express themselves and express their art. I’ll say that several times I’ve had my feelings hurt, for sure. I’ve had my feelings hurt a lot by Chris. But at the end of the day, too, being in the spotlight, it comes with the territory.”