Will Smith's personal life is as complicated as the characters he plays on the big screen.
Fox Nation's new special "Who is Will Smith?" pulls the curtain back on the once-proclaimed king of Hollywood and the enigmatic details of his personal and professional career.
It's no secret that Will Smith had a difficult home life growing up. As noted by Fox Nation host Kacie McDonnell Hosmer, the Smith family was "anything but happy." His current family life was also making headlines this time last year, following wife Jada Pinkett Smith's extra-marital "entanglement" and the subsequent airing of their dirty laundry the couple voluntarily chose to broadcast on the family's talk show, "Red Table Talk."
Did the world-class actor's heavy home life contribute to the instance that, possibly permanently, crumpled his career?
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The new Fox Nation special spotlights a shocking anecdote from Smith's childhood, with some speculating that his extreme response had a clear correlation to the "slap heard around the world."
When Smith was nine-years-old, his father struck his mother with such force that it caused her spit up blood. As cited in the special, other witnesses ran to his mother's aid while he stood there, seemingly stunned with fear.
Hollywood producer and journalist Jeanne Wolf weighed in, arguing that Smith has carried life-long guilt for being unable to protect his mother.
"To go through something like that, I think from that point on, he felt if I see a woman being attacked, whether that be physically or rhetorically, I have to stand up for that person," Wolf argued.
During the 2022 Oscars ceremony, Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock for making a displeasing joke about his wife, Pinkett Smith. The world's reaction scorched the earth, and has since left Will Smith's seemingly shatterproof reputation in shambles.
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"They might have been disrespectful, but that's what comedy does. It pokes the bear. It wasn't obscene. It wasn't necessarily hurtful. He was laughing. Will was laughing when this happened. This… was not anything that was uncommon," McDonnell Hosmer argued.
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"In that moment, I think that trauma resurfaced where he was being a hero to his wife who was broken. It shrouded the reality of the situation. Because the reality of the situation was, he became the abuser, and he was trying to protect his woman from it," she continued.
For Smith, the consequences that followed were shocking. Hollywood's elites took to the internet to give their two cents, and the majority were running to Chris Rock's defense.
Likely to Smith's surprise, the split-second decision that was intended to defend his wife's reputation in turn forever tainted his own.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha weighed in, arguing that Smith's violent decision was "unprecedented."
"He gets to stay there for the award ceremony and even is up on stage accepting an award later. Anybody else, at least any regular citizen, would have been arrested at that point for battery. But I don't think the Oscar organizers knew what to do in that moment because there was no playbook for this. It was unprecedented," Concha said during his guest appearance on "Who is Will Smith?"
Fox Nation's new special provides subscribers with an in-depth breakdown of the befuddled A-lister's historic career, along with spotlighting his heavily denounced relationship with Jada Pinkett Smith.
To learn about Will Smith's mysterious home life that potentially contributed to one of the biggest news stories of the year, stream Fox Nation's exclusive special, "Who is Will Smith?" which looks to shine a light on the darkest corners of his past. Viewers can sign up for Fox Nation and stream the new special today.
