From Spitgate to the Oscars Slap, the Most Shocking Celebrity Moments of 2022

At the Oscars on March 27, Chris Rock made an inappropriate joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head; Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia. Her husband, Will Smith, took to the stage and slapped Rock in the face. As producers scrambled backstage, Smith remained in his seat and accepted the award for best actor for his role in "King Richard." The internet exploded with opinions, while the Smith family mostly stayed offline. The Academy did ban Smith from attending the ceremony for 10 years, though he can still be nominated for — and win — Oscars.

Fans were shocked in 2021 when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who'd been together in the early 2000s, rekindled their romance. They were even more surprised when they got engaged for a second time in April. And in case you thought it was going to be a long engagement, they tied the knot at a chapel in Las Vegas on July 16. They had a second, bigger wedding in Georgia at the end of August.

Desus Nice and The Kid Mero became a seemingly inseparable duo when they started their podcast "Desus vs. Mero" in 2013, which they followed up with their podcast "The Bodega Boys" two years later. That project eventually turned into a late-night talk show, "Desus & Mero," where they interviewed celebrities, cracked jokes, and always repped the Bronx. But in July, Showtime confirmed the show was ending and the pair would pursue separate creative projects. Fans were shocked and worried that their friendship had ended, though the pair have said they remain supportive of each other.

Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, "Sour," with its lead single "Drivers License," was the soundtrack of 2021, and part of its popularity was buoyed by rumors that the cause of her heartbreak was her "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" costar Joshua Bassett. So it was shocking when the duo reunited on the red carpet for season three on July 27 and posed together like they were best buddies.

Rumors of an alleged on-set feud between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh, the star of Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling," came to a head at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 5. After an awkward Q&A session that Pugh didn't attend, the cast gathered for the premiere. As they sat in the theater, Harry Styles — who was then dating Wilde — sat next to Chris Pine. One fan thought it looked like Styles spat on Pine as he sat down in his seat. Online sleuths pored over the video, claiming it definitively proved that spit flew, but Styles and Pine both denied it. The cast later joked about it while doing press.

Queen Elizabeth died on Sept. 8, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle traveled across the pond to honor his late grandmother. However, the Palace announced that only "working" members of the royal family would be allowed to wear their military uniforms to the five public events in honor of the queen. So Harry, despite his 10 years of service in the British Royal Army, would not be allowed to wear his military uniform. He still wore his medals on his morning suit. However, after public backlash, the Palace changed course on Sept. 15, and Harry was allowed to wear his uniform to the remainder of the events.

Harry and Markle were also invited to, then uninvited to, a reception in honor of the queen during the funeral proceedings.

At the 2022 Emmys, Quinta Brunson won an Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series for her show "Abbott Elementary," becoming the third Black writer and second Black woman writer to receive the honor. However, some of her shine was taken by Jimmy Kimmel, who, before her win was announced, had done a bit that ended with him lying on the floor. Kimmel remained on the stage floor as Brunson gave her acceptance speech. Viewers were outraged, but Brunson said she wasn't as bothered by it, though her "Abbott Elementary" costar (and fellow Emmy winner) Sheryl Lee Ralph was more vocal about her dissatisfaction with the moment. Brunson appeared on Kimmel's late-night show two days later, where he apologized and gave her time to finish her speech.

On Sept. 20, the internet was ablaze when model Sumner Stroh posted a TikTok video claiming that she and Levine had had an affair, alongside screenshots of their conversations as proof. Levine denied the affair, though he wrote in part in his Instagram statement, "I used poor judgement in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner. I did not have an affair, nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life." The video was posted shortly after Levine and wife Behati Prinsloo had announced they were expecting their third child.

Adding to the storm of cheating scandals, on Sept. 27, the internet content creators known as the Try Guys announced that one of the members, Ned Fulmer, would be leaving the group's media company following reports of an affair with one of the employees. Ned's wife, Ariel, was also employed by the Try Guys company. The three remaining Try Guys — Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang — addressed the matter in a video published Oct. 3.

For literally years, fans have wondered about potential bad blood between Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber, all thanks to Gomez's last relationship with Hailey's now-husband, Justin Bieber. In September, Hailey appeared on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast and said her relationship with Justin "never" crossed over with Gomez and the pop star's. She explained, "When him and I ever started, like, hooking up or like anything of that sort, he was not ever in a relationship. Ever, at any point. It's not my character to mess with someone's relationship. I would just never do that. . . . I can say, period, point blank, I was never with him when he was in a relationship with anybody — that's the end of it. And I had been involved [with Justin] since I was 18." Shortly after the episode went live, Gomez called for "kindness" on TikTok.

On Oct. 16, the pair ended the rumors of a feud once and for all when they posed together at the Academy Museum Gala. That's how you end a rumor.

In the most late-breaking scandal of 2022, on Nov. 30, the Daily Mail published photos of "GMA3" anchors TJ Holmes and Amy Robach alongside claims they have been having an affair. Both hosts, who are married to other people, deleted their Instagram accounts and have yet to comment on the reports, but "GMA" pulled them from the air the week of Dec. 5 and is investigating the matter.

That's ending the year on a high note. Keke Palmer hosted "Saturday Night Live" for the first time on Dec. 3, and she used her monologue to reveal a major secret: she's pregnant with her first child! She and her boyfriend Darius Jackson met in May 2021.