With all of the controversy and laughs around Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars and Jada Pinkett Smith’s candor on her Facebook Watch program, Red Table Talk, many fans had waited months to hear what she had to say about the famous event. While the talented actress did briefly remark on the incident on a recent episode of the program, she had far more to say about a subject that is important to her heart: alopecia, an autoimmune illness that causes hair loss.

«This is a critical Red Table Talk about alopecia.» «Considering everything I’ve gone through with my own health and what occurred at the Oscars,» Pinkett Smith says at the beginning of the episode. «I’m taking advantage of this opportunity to offer our alopecia family a chance to speak about what it’s like to have this illness and to educate others about what alopecia is.»

«Now, regarding Oscar night,» she said of the slap, «my greatest desire is that these two educated, talented guys get a chance to heal, speak this out, and reconcile.» Given the status of the world today, we need both. And we all need each other more now than ever. Until then, Will and I will keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last 28 years: figuring out this thing called life together. Thank you for your time. »

All this week at the Red Table: the alopecia community shares special and powerful conversations about the devastating impacts of alopecia💔 Link in bio🔗 pic.twitter.com/COd6FrB5ta

— Red Table Talk (@RedTableTalk) June 1, 2022

Will Smith punched Rock onstage in March after taking issue with the comedian’s low-brow joke about his wife’s shaved head, which is a consequence of her sickness. «Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking lips,» Smith snarled at Rock as he sat back down. The slap was undeniably the year’s biggest pop culture incident, with celebrities, comedians, and everyone else chiming in; eventually, Smith resigned from the Academy, and the Academy barred him from attending any event for ten years.However, Jada Pinkett Smith has come out this week to provide her side.

In the opening episode, Pinkett Smith discussed her experience with the disease with her daughter, Willow, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris. She expresses the anxiety that comes with having alopecia, always wondering, «What’s my hair going to look like today?» as patches appear and go without notice. She also showed video of her «alopecia scarring» across her head. She said that there are 147 million people dealing with the disease, and that the episode was intended to shed awareness on a subject that people don’t speak about because «there’s so much shame surrounding it,» adding, «There are so many people going around with alopecia that we don’t even know.»

The three hosts then present Nik Ball, the mother of 12-year-old Rio Allred, with tears in their eyes. Allred acquired baldness and, after being bullied at school, committed suicide in March of this year. «She was very clever, really amazing,» Ball said of her daughter. She was a lovely older sister who enjoyed reading, writing, painting, and playing in the band. …The broadcast continued with a surgeon explaining the various types of alopecia, as well as Gina Knight, a woman who worked in the hair industry for a decade and recently wrote an article for New York Magazine about her experience with alopecia. The somber show concluded with former NBA player Charlie Villanueva detailing his illness journey.

As the shock of the event wears off, resources like Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk episode should help people learn more about alopecia.