Recently, a claim arose online that Will Smith lost a multi-million-dollar lawsuit to Chris Rock over the former’s infamous slap at the 2022 Academy Awards. One of the first pages that shared the claim was Mzansi K-Vibes on Facebook on August 10 and included a collage of the duo’s pictures alongside the caption:

“Chris Rock wins lawsuit against Will Smith for that famous slap getting a whooping $40 Million, it has just become the most expensive slap ever!!!!”

While the post garnered more than 79,000 reactions, 12,000 comments, and 18,000 shares in less than a week, the claim has turned out to be false. As per Snopes, neither did Chris Rock ever file a legal suit against Will Smith nor did he win $40 million for it.

Chris Rock reportedly considered suing Will Smith but later decided against it

Despite the viral claim that comedian, actor, and filmmaker Chris Rock recently won a $40 million lawsuit against actor, rapper, and producer Will Smith for slapping him onstage at the 94th Oscars two years back, it is untrue.

At the time of the incident, Variety reported that Chris Rock refused to file a police complaint against Will Smith. The publication even obtained a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department regarding the matter which read:

“LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.”

Around that time, another report emerged on the Page Six website that Chris Rock considered suing Smith but later decided against it. Rock declined to address the slap in public for a while until he broke his silence on his Ego Death World Tour followed by the 2023 Netflix standup special Selective Outrage.

“Y’all know what happened to me. Getting smacked by Suge Smith. Everybody knows. Everybody f*cking knows. Yes! It happened. I got smacked like a year ago, f*cking last week, I got smacked at the f*cking Oscars by this motherf*cker. And people like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ear. F*cking drums, please,” the comedian said.

Chris further went on to say that he was not a “victim” and would never go on Oprah or Gayle King “crying,” seemingly taking a shot at Smith for often getting emotional during his on-camera interviews. The comedian also mentioned how he was not “fighting” with the Bad Boys star, adding that he was not the “same size” as Smith.

“Will Smith is significantly bigger than me… This guy mostly does movies with his shirt off. You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off… Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. [Do] you think I auditioned for that part? He played Muhammad Ali. I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City,’” Chris Rock added.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the comic was paid $40 million by Netflix for a two comedy specials deal, including Selective Outrage. However, it was signed in 2016, way before the Oscars incident happened.

Exploring the Oscar incident between Chris Rock and Will Smith

For those unaware, in March 2022, Chris Rock was hosting the year’s Oscar ceremony and made a joke about Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett-Smith who suffers from alopecia (chronic hair loss). He quipped that Jada’s shaved head would make her an ideal choice to appear in a sequel to G.I. Jane.

The joke did not sit well with Smith who immediately stormed onto the stage and slapped Chris Rock. However, the latter did not lose his cool. Later that night, when Smith won the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard, he screamed at the comedian and asked him to “keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth.”

Chris Rock should have said, "that was quite an entanglement, I'm gonna feel that slap until August. He is a G.O.A.T and deserves an Award for how he handled the situation. He's an embodiment of "the show must go on."

50cent | Will Smith | Jaden pic.twitter.com/OAw59uZBoT

— Auxiliary Doctor (@bobosjeru) March 28, 2022

The viral incident created a lot of stir at the time, including backlash for Will Smith. Amid this, he took to his social media and shared an apology video saying that he tried to reach out to Chris Rock but the latter wasn’t “ready to talk.” He also directly addressed the comic, and “apologized” to him, adding that his behavior was “unacceptable.”

While it remains undisclosed whether Rock ever got in touch with Smith to bury the hatchet, a few months later, Will Smith also issued another mea culpa via YouTube. Notably, in the aftermath of the incident, the Men In Black actor was banned from the Academy Awards for a decade.