Serena Williams breaks silence on Will Smith’s Oscars punch to DEFEND him

Serena Williams has broken her silence defending the shocking moment when Will Smith punched Chris Rock at the Oscars almost a year ago.

Speaking to 68-year-old Gayle King on CBS Mornings, the tennis star said everyone deserves forgiveness.

Serena said she has made her own mistakes at times, reminding viewers that “we are all imperfect and we are all human”.

“Then King Richard had that moment at the Oscars, what did you think?” Gayle asked the sporting ace.

“I thought it was such an incredible movie, and I feel like there was an incredible movie after that with Questlove that got overshadowed,” Serena said.

“But I also feel like I’ve been in a position where I’ve been under a lot of pressure and made a huge amount of mistakes.

“I’m the person who says, ‘I’ve been there, I made a mistake.’ It’s not the end of the world.’ ‘We’re all imperfect and we’re all human and let’s just be nice to each other.’

She ended, “So that’s often forgotten a lot.”

King Richard is the movie that tells the story of Serena and Venus Williams and the mentorship of their father, Richard Williams.

Will portrays Richard in the film.

Will punched Chris Rock at the Oscars in March last year, making international headlines.

Chris, who hosted the show, joked that Will’s wife Jada looked like “GI Jane” because of her bald head.

She had recently revealed that she suffers from alopecia.

Will stormed the stage and slapped Rock after angrily, “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”

He won Best Actor that night for his role in King Richard, but he didn’t specifically apologize to Chris.

After the incident, Will was seen partying all night with his family at the Vanity Fair Oscars bash, dancing to his own song Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It as the crowd cheered him on.

Will has since been banned from the Oscars for 10 years for slapping comedian Chris, but gets to keep his Best Actor award.

However, a few days later, he apologized in an official statement saying his behavior was “unacceptable and inexcusable” and “embarrassed” him.

“Violence in all its forms is toxic and destructive,” he wrote.

My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and unforgivable. Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.

“I want to apologize publicly, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am ashamed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.’

Last November, Will spoke to Trevor Noah about the incident, saying there was “anger” inside him that night at the Oscars.

He also added that when he came home after the ceremony, his nine-year-old nephew was waiting and having seen the blow, asked him, “Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?”

Will then took out his handkerchiefs and looked at Noah jokingly, “Damn. Why are you trying to Oprah me?”

He added, “It was a mess, you know. I don’t want to go into too much detail to make people misunderstand even more.”

After discussing his new movie, Noah joked that they hadn’t seen him in a while, when Will started talking about what he said was “a horrific night, as you can imagine.”

“There are many nuances and complexities. But at the end of the day I’m just… I lost it, you know?’ Will admitted.

“I went through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior…” he admitted.

‘It was a lot of things. It was the little boy who saw his father beat up his mother, you know? That all bubbled up at that moment. That’s not who I want to be,” he said.

‘I was gone. That was a rage that had been in the bottle for a long time,” Will said.