Val Chmerkovskiy Apologizes to Carrie Ann Inaba Over Will Smith Slap Reference

The world of competitive ballroom television collided this week with one of Hollywood's most enduring cultural flashpoints when Dancing With the Stars professional Val Chmerkovskiy found himself apologizing to fellow cast member and judge Carrie Ann Inaba over a social media post that invoked Will Smith's infamous 2022 Oscars slap — a moment that, more than three years on, continues to ripple through pop culture in ways few could have anticipated.

A Deleted Post and Its Fallout

The episode began, according to The Hollywood Reporter, when Chmerkovskiy posted a TikTok Story on Wednesday that read, "You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night." The remark came in the context of Chmerkovskiy defending his wife, fellow DWTS professional Jenna Johnson, after Inaba offered pointed criticism of Johnson's samba performance with partner Harry Shum Jr. during the show's Super Bowl Night episode. Inaba had told Johnson she needed to "put more content" in her choreography and flagged an apparent lift — even producing a written definition of the term during the live broadcast to underscore her point.

The "Fresh Prince" reference landed poorly with a significant portion of the audience. On Reddit, threads quickly filled with the interpretation that Chmerkovskiy was alluding to the moment Will Smith walked onto the Oscars stage in 2022 and struck presenter Chris Rock — Smith having been best known early in his career as the star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Readers took the post to imply that Chmerkovskiy had considered physically confronting Inaba in defense of his wife, a reading that made the allusion all the more charged. The TikTok Story remained live for at least six hours before being removed.

Inaba's Response and the Public Reckoning

Inaba did not let the matter pass quietly. On Thursday, she shared a screenshot of a Page Six post covering Chmerkovskiy's comment — alongside a split image of Smith and Chmerkovskiy — and wrote simply, "So this is what we are doing now?" It was a restrained but unmistakably pointed reaction, leaning into the weight of the Smith comparison without elaborating further.

The 2022 Oscars incident, in which Smith slapped Rock after Rock made a joke referencing Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, remains one of the most discussed moments in recent awards history. Smith famously returned to his seat and shouted at Rock to keep his wife's name "out of your fucking mouth." That the slap continues to surface in cultural commentary — from late-night monologues to reality television disputes — speaks to how thoroughly it has lodged itself in the collective consciousness.

The Apology

Chmerkovskiy responded on his Instagram Story with a thorough and self-critical apology. He acknowledged reaching out to Inaba directly before also addressing his broader audience, writing that he "should have never made the reference" and that he "deeply regrets it." He framed the incident as a failure of self-awareness around the responsibilities that come with a public platform, committing to pause and reflect before posting in the future. "I am truly sorry to Carrie Ann, and everyone who I hurt with my careless post," he concluded. "I will do better moving forward."

The three-time DWTS champion's apology is notable for its specificity — he did not hedge about what the post implied or dispute the interpretation. It was a clean acknowledgment that, whatever the intent, the language he chose carried an unmistakable and troubling subtext.

Smith's Long Cultural Shadow

What the episode ultimately illustrates is the degree to which Will Smith's legacy remains complex and contested. Even as his career shows signs of forward momentum — with projects like the thriller Supermax bringing new collaborators into his orbit — and even as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air finds new generations of fans on streaming platforms, the Oscars incident remains a shorthand that carries immediate and serious weight. For Chmerkovskiy, a passing rhetorical flourish became a lesson in how quickly that weight can transfer — and why some references, however casually deployed, are never truly casual.