Tiffany Haddish praised Will Smith for standing up for his wife and called the moment he smacked Chris Rock "beautiful".
The comedian said she believed Will was right to defend Jada Pinkett Smith, who found herself the target for one of Chris' jokes.
"When I saw a Black man stand up for his wife. That meant so much to me," the 42-year-old told PEOPLE.
"As a woman, who has been unprotected, for someone to say, 'Keep my wife's name out your mouth, leave my wife alone,' that's what your husband is supposed to do, right? Protect you."
Will, 53, walked on stage and hit Chris, 57, around the face after the comedian made a joke about Jada's short hair.
"And that meant the world to me. And maybe the world might not like how it went down, but for me, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives."
She asked: "Would you do that for your wife? Would you say, 'Keep my wife's name out your mother f---ing…' Like, yes! Yes!"
Tiffany said Chris was "a friend" of Will and Jada, she added: "Why would you do that? He didn't even run the joke by her, but she was hurt though."
"If she wouldn't have been hurt, [Will] probably wouldn't have said nothing," said Tiffany, who starred in Girls Trip with Jada in 2017.
"But you could see he was clearly… And they exploited it. They exploited her, so 'I have to do something'… He protected his wife."
She later claimed that "Will is fine" after Chris said: "Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see ya."
To which Will got up out of his seat and smacked Chris, who looked stunned.
"Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke," Chris said.
To which Will hit back: "Keep my wife's name out your f---ing mouth!"
"I'm going to, okay?" Rock replied, before going on to say, "That was the ... greatest night in the history of television" and presenting the award.
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Jada has spoken about her hair loss during her battle with autoimmune disorder alopecia.
The activist shared a candid video that showed her bare scalp, which she says she's embracing.
"Now at this point, I can only laugh," she said as she ran her finger across a bald line patch along the center of her scalp.
"Y'all know I've been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. Look at that."
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