The biggest moment of the 2022 Academy Awards was not who won what award. Unfortunately, when Will Smith walked on stage and slapped Chris Rock, that stole the show. The show went on, but everyone was pretty distracted by the unexpected violent moment that happened during a live broadcast of an awards show that celebrates movies.

Since the incident, Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, has spoken out about the joke that was the inciting incident. Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, which is caused by alopecia. She opened up about her struggle and the struggles of others with alopecia during an episode of “Red Table Talk.”

Rock has had time to process the slap heard round the world and has gotten to the point where he’s starting to joke about it on stage. He never pressed charges against Smith but has yet to talk to him about it though.

Now, Smith is finally speaking out. On his YouTube channel, he sat down to answer frequently asked questions about the slap and to apologize to the people he hurt.

The video starts with text over the screen that explains what to expect from this video. It reads, “It’s been a minute…Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work…” The message continues, “You asked a lot of fair questions that I wanted to to take some time to answer.”

Then Smith walks on screen and sits down. He reads a question and then proceeds to answer it. In all, he answers three different questions, and in the process, he apologizes to Rock and Rock’s family. He also apologizes to Questlove, the Oscar nominees, the Academy, his own family, and his fans.

He explains, “It hurts me psychologically and emotionally to know that I didn’t live up to people’s image and impression of me.” He added, “I am deeply remorseful, and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. Right? I’m human, and I made a mistake.”

Besides simply apologizing, Smith also explained that his wife did not tell him to slap Rock. He clarified, “I made a choice on my own from my own experiences and history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it.”

Watch the video below to hear Smith’s full apology for slapping Rock at the Oscars.

Do you believe that Smith is truly “remorseful”? Do you think his fans will ever be able to think of him the same way again? Do you think Smith’s career will be able to recover from the incident at the Oscars?