Reality TV
Val Chmerkovskiy’s Deleted ‘Fresh Prince’ Post Has ‘DWTS’ Fans Divided, Carrie Ann Inaba Responds
Val Chmerkovskiy posts now-deleted Will Smith Oscars slap reference after judge Carrie Ann Inaba criticized wife Jenna Johnson on ‘Dancing with the Stars.’
A controversy surrounding Dancing with the Stars has escalated after Val Chmerkovskiy shared a now-deleted social media post that appeared to reference Will Smith‘s infamous Oscars slap. The remark came after judge Carrie Ann Inaba criticized Chmerkovskiy’s wife, Jenna Johnson, over her samba with Harry Shum Jr. during the October 13 show.
In a now-deleted social media post, Chmerkovskiy shared a selfie he snapped while he briefly had his hair styled in cornrows. Text accompanying the photo read, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.”
The wording was clearly a reference to an incident that took place at the 2022 Oscars. During the show, host Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith’s wife. Seconds later, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star walked to the stage and slapped Rock across the face. Smith also told Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
While the original post Chmerkovskiy shared on TikTok has been deleted, Dancing with the Stars viewers are commenting on another recent post of his, as well as on Reddit and elsewhere, sharing their thoughts.
“Loooove Val!!! Never want to see him leave. How bout a certain judge get in check,” gushed a fan of Chmerkovskiy’s.
A comment from a critic of Chmerkovskiy read, “The level of accountability is so off this year. Fresh Prince? Really? Why are you not commenting on this? Clear the air? It’s not funny. Let’s not chalk it up to… ‘this is old school Val,’ or ‘you would’ve hated his brother Maks if you think this is bad.’ We don’t need men like this as influencers, or entertainers. This isn’t ok and it’s not normal.”
Someone else added, “Joking about hitting women, or even your coworkers, [because] they said something you disagree with on a tv show about competitive dancing is funny? Yikes.”
On October 15, Inaba took to Instagram to specifically acknowledge Chmerkovskiy’s post. She shared a screenshot of a Page Six post about the situation. The post’s photo included the quote from Chmerkovskiy’s earlier TikTok along with pictures of Chmerkovskiy, Smith, and the moment that Smith slapped Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
In the caption, Inaba wrote, “…thank you @pagesix and @entertainmentweekly for bringing this to my attention.”
In the Dancing with the Stars subreddit, there have been multiple threads about the situation involving Johnson, Inaba, and Chmerkovskiy. In one thread, a Reddit user noted, “Even if he didn’t mean it in the physical sense he created an environment for people online to bully CAI.. so that it self deserves consequences.”
The comments left on Inaba’s Instagram post signaled a deep divide among Dancing with the Stars fans on this situation.
One person wrote, “hot take: I don’t think he was referring to the slap, i think he’s referring to will smith saying ‘keep my wife’s name out your mouth.’ i think everyone needs to relax.” That comment has received nearly 8,000 “likes” and dozens of comments.
Another declared, “You were so rude to Jenna and he was making a joke about it! RELAX.”
Someone else disagreed, writing, “I can’t believe people in the comments are making excuses for a grown man threatening a woman.”
Closer Weekly has reached out to representatives for both Chmerkovskiy and Inaba for comment but has not received responses.
