It has been over a year since the infamous slapgate incident happened at the Oscars. The world was shocked when Will Smith smacked Chris Rock on the historic Academy Awards podium. However, he regretted it by heart later and apologized several times publically. Even after his apologies, the matter is once again in the news because of something he said last year.

The Emancipation star released an immediate public apology right after the incident happened. But a few months after that, he released a video on his YouTube channel where he answered some of the questions his fans were dying to know the answers to. Smith responded to one of them by promising that he will do his best to be friends with Rock again.

The 54-year-old actor promised to be friends with Rock again at the end of the video. On the other hand, Rock kept mum on the incident for quite a while. However, exactly a year later, he took it all out in his Netflix special Selective Outrage.

Insider talked to psychologist Dr. Frederick Smith, who shared his two cents on the whole situation. He said, “A lot of times, we run into these problems because we’re trying to make seasonal people a lifetime commitment.”

Smith has been active in his field for over fifteen years now and talked about the causes behind broken friendships, ways to handle them, and when to stop trying.

Dr. Smith on what happened between Will Smith and Chris Rock

Smith, who has been specializing in the field of mental health, has a few points he has collected from the research he did for years. He said that the reasons why friendships break can be anything from physical distance to ideology clash. In the case of Will Smith and Chris Rock, Dr. Smith says that it happened because both of them felt disrespect from each other’s end.

Smith says that when something like this happens, the best thing to do is to go to the root cause of the problem and look for the reasons which led up to that kind of anger. He said it is really important to check why the person felt that anger towards the other; was it because of something the other one did to piss him off, or was it a completely different story? He also talked about the possibilities of misplacing the anger.

According to Dr. Smith, making amends and showing forgiveness are two key elements that might improve a friendship. However, he also said that if all the steps one has taken to mend the bond fail, it is okay to give up on the friendship.

Do you expect Chris Rock and Will Smith to resolve the problems and become friends?? Tell us in the comments.