'My heart dropped.'
Jada Pinkett Smith is telling Snoop Dog how his comments about Gayle King affected her. In a sneak peek clip from the upcoming episode of Facebook Watch's Red Table Talk, the 48-year-old actress opens up to the rapper about how she felt after he blasted King for her interview about Kobe Bryant.
"When you first came out and you said what you said, you know, in regards to Gayle, my heart dropped. I felt like not only were you talking to Gayle, but you were talking to me," Smith says in the clip. "I was like, 'Oh no, Snoop has now taken his power flow away from me, away from Willow, away from my mother... Not Snoop!' Right?"
"And so that’s one of the reasons I felt like I really wanted to have the conversation with you in the spirit of healing," she adds.
Earlier this month, King faced backlash when a snippet of, what she called, her "wide-ranging interview" with Lisa Leslie was released without context, following Bryant's January death in a helicopter crash. In the clip, King was seen asking Leslie, a former pro basketball player and Bryant's friend, about the 2003 sexual assault allegation against the late NBA player.
In response to that line of questioning, Snoop shared an expletive-filled video of himself disparaging King on Instagram, and threatening, "How dare you try to tarnish my motherf**king homeboy's reputation, punk motherf**ker. Respect the family and back off, b**ch, before we come get you."
After the backlash, a spokesperson for CBS News told ET: "Gayle conducted a thoughtful, wide-ranging interview with Lisa Leslie about the legacy of Kobe Bryant. An excerpt was posted that did not reflect the nature and tone of the full interview. We are addressing the internal process that led to this and changes have already been made."
Meanwhile, King posted an Instagram video, explaining that she was "extremely angry" and "mortified" by the video, which she said was "totally taken out of context."
"I wanted to get Lisa's take on it as a friend who knew him well, what she thought. Where that should stand," she said. "And I thought it was very powerful when she looked me in the eye, as a member of the media, to say it's time for the media to leave it alone and to back off. During the course of the interview, I asked follow-up questions because I wanted to make sure her position and perspective were very clear."
Of the late Bryant, she added, "... I have been with Kobe Bryant on many social occasions. He was very kind and very warm to me, and I felt we had a friendly relationship. I too am mourning his loss just like everybody else. I still am shocked by it. It's tragic and untimely and the last thing I'd want to do is disparage him at this particular time."
Following King's statement, Snoop apologized to the journalist on Instagram, noting that "two wrongs don't make no right."
"Gayle King, I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner based off of emotions... me being angry at questions that you asked. [I] overreacted," he said. "Should have handled it way different than that. I was raised way better than that. So I would like to apologize to you publicly for the language that I used and calling you out of your name and just being disrespectful."
"I didn't mean for it to be like that. I was just expressing myself for a friend that wasn't here to defend himself," Snoop continued. "A lot of people look up to me and they love me and they appreciate me, so I want to let them know that anytime you mess up, it's okay to fix it, it's okay to man up and say that you're wrong. I apologize. Hopefully we can sit down and talk privately. Have a good day."
In a statement to ET, King accepted Snoop's apology, saying, "[I] understand the raw emotions caused by this tragic loss. I’m deeply sorry that questions I asked added to that pain. That was never my intention."
"As a journalist, it is sometimes challenging to balance doing my job with the emotions and feelings during difficult times," she added. "I don’t always get it perfect but I'm constantly striving to do it with compassion and integrity."
Amid the criticism celebs and journalists showed support for King with the hashtag #IStandWithGayle. Additionally, Oprah Winfrey spoke out in support of King, confessing on the Today show that her long time friend was "not doing well" and was receiving "death threats."
"I think anybody can criticize anything, but the misogynist vitriol and the attacking to the point of it is dangerous to be in the streets alone because it is not just the people who are attacking, it's the other people who take that message and feel like they can do whatever they want to because of it," Winfrey said, appearing to allude to Snoop's and others' comments about King.
Watch the video below for more on the controversy.
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