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Will Smith is still keen on mending his sour relationship with Chris Rock, a source told PEOPLE this week.

Over the weekend, Rock finally opened up about the epic Oscars slap heard around the world at the hands of Smith on his fiery Netflix comedy special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage. The 58-year-old comic told fans that he is “not a victim” and that he didn’t do anything to warrant the hard-hitting strike from Smith, even though he did make fun of Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head.

Well, Smith definitely caught wind of Rock’s comedic bit, because now, reps for the actor are speaking out about the controversy. A source close to the King Richard star told PEOPLE that Smith still feels “terrible” for smacking Rock at the Oscars.

 “He’s tried unsuccessfully to make amends in the best way he could with Chris,” the confidante continued. “But beyond that, family is important to him.”

Smith leaned on the love and support of his family in the aftermath of the shocking incident, according to the source.

“It all has helped him look inside and mature,” the insider added. “He is better but still remorseful. Will listened to those who tried to help him and feels that he has become a better person.”

In July 2022,  Smith issued a formal apology to Rock for smacking the daylights out of him on live television. At the time, the Fresh Prince alum said that he “wasn’t thinking about how many people [that] got hurt in that moment.”

Time truly heals all and now, it’s great to see Will still taking accountability for his actions and trying to make things right, but unfortunately, it looks like those emotional wounds still haven’t quite healed yet for Rock.

 

Chis Rock opens up about the Oscars slap, calls Will Smith a b–ch for doing 2020 Red Table Talk interview with Pinkett

 

During his live comedy special that aired March 4, Rock closed out his epic show with a few heated words about Smith’s Oscars slap and made some unsavory remarks about the star’s marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith.

“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock told audience members at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, where he recorded Netflix’s first-ever live broadcast. “Everybody that really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that sh–. I didn’t have any ‘entanglements,'” the star joked while referencing Pinkett’s Red Table Talk interview in 2020, where she opened up about her intimate relationship with singer August Alsina.

Pinkett got into an “entanglement” with the R&B star while she and Smith were on a break. Smith, joined his wife on the show to discuss their marital differences, and ultimately Pinkett felt as though they became stronger because of the rough patch.

“We have really gotten to that new place of unconditional love,” she said at the time.

But Rock certainly did not view the viral interview in the same light.

During his stand-up special, the Top Five star said that “everybody in the world” called Will a “b-tch” after the “entanglement” news hit the media. He claimed he tried to reach out to the actor in the months following the interview, but he never received a callback.

He went on to call Smith a b-tch a few more times throughout the special and slammed the Oscar Award-winner for targeting him out of all people.

“Who’s he hit? Me, a n—- he knows he can beat. That is some b-tch-ass s—.” Rock quipped.

Yikes!

We hope these two are able to hash things out one day. What do you think? Is Chris Rock wrong for not accepting Smith’s apology?

 

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