Piers Morgan defends Will Smith's Oscars slap, claiming 'I'd probably have done the same'

express.co.uk:

Oscar-winner Will Smith saw red at the weekend when comic Chris Rock appeared to poke fun at his wife's alopecia condition with a "GI Jane" joke - and stormed the stage to slap him across the face.

As some rushed to condemn the movie star's unexpected show of aggression, Piers hit back: "I'd probably have done the same."Piers made the passionate admission in view of almost eight million Twitter followers this morning.Though many argued that there was never a legitimate excuse for violence, Piers dismissed their words with a cry of: "So much snowflakey bulls*** re Oscars smackdown."He continued: "You can think Will Smith wrong to slap Chris Rock but still understand why he did it if he thought - incorrectly - Rock was deliberately mocking his wife’s alopecia in front of a gazillion people."I’d have probably done the same."During an emotional Oscars acceptance speech later that evening, Will spoke of his urge to"protect" his family.He has also previously opened up about enduring trauma in childhood, when he was unable to protect his mother from violence inflicted by his father.He told the world that this episode had shaped him more than any other event in his life - and that his inability to help had haunted him."When I was nine years old, I watched my father punch my mother in the side of the head so hard that she collapsed,” he explained in his 2011 autobiography.“I saw her spit blood.That moment in that bedroom, probably more than any other moment in my life, has defined who I am."Within everything that I have done since then — the awards and accolades, the spotlights and attention, the characters and the laughs — there has been a subtle string of apologies to my mother for my inaction that day."For failing her in the.