Will Smith has admitted that he 'lost it' on stage at the Oscars when he slapped Chris Rock in the face after a joke about Smith's wife was made.
Given the celebrity of the two stars involved, the televised event went viral for many weeks.
Smith explained in his first late-night interview since the incident earlier this year that he was dealing with a lot mentally at the time and lost his cool.
"I was gone," Smith admitted on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah."
"That was a rage that had been bottled up for a long time," Smith explained.
That night, the actor told Noah he was "going through something" and lost his cool.
"As you can imagine, that was a horrific night," he said. "There are many nuances and complexities to it, you know, but at the end of the day, I just - I lost it, and I guess what I'd say is that you just never know what somebody's going through."
There was no clear answer as to what Smith was going through at the time that caused him to react like that to the comedian on stage who was hosting the award.
Smith also talked about returning from the Oscars that night to his nine-year-old nephew.
"He is the sweetest little boy. We came home and he had stayed up late to see his uncle Will and we're sitting in my kitchen and he's on my lap and he's holding the Oscar and he's just like 'Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?'," Smith said, tearing up.
