Chris Rock is making his return to the Oscars social scene, three years after his onstage altercation with Will Smith. 

The comedian and two-time Academy Awards host attended the Vanity Fair Oscars Party on March 2, his first time at the event since he was slapped by Smith at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022. Rock donned a black tuxedo for the occasion, and posed for photos alongside his youngest daughter, Zahra Rock.

When Rock inevitably faced questions about the infamous incident, he spoke firmly about forgiveness. Asked whether he has moved on from the slap — which led Smith to receive a 10-year ban from Academy events — Rock told E! News, “I live in forgiveness. True love starts at forgiveness.”

As for whether he envisions himself taking the Oscar stage again for a third shot at hosting the show, Rock replied, “You never know.”

He continued, “This is what I would say: the most miserable people on earth are people that can’t forgive. And not just people —  you have to forgive yourself sometimes. So, hey, you never know.”

Rock previously hosted the Academy Awards in 2005 and 2016, but was presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature when he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, prompting the angered response from her husband. Smith was so offended by a comment about his wife’s shaved head (she has alopecia) that he marched onstage, struck Rock, and declared, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f—ing mouth.”

Smith, who then won the Oscar for Best Actor 20 minutes later, attended that night’s Vanity Fair after-party and was seen dancing to his 1997 song “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”

He apologized for the slap the following day, saying: “Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.”

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He offered an apology to Rock specifically and, days later, announced his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The latest comments from Rock prove that he has changed his tune about an Oscars return in recent years. In the immediate aftermath of the slap, Rock cracked joked about the incident as part of a new stand-up routine — including one where he opened up about declining the Academy’s offer for him to host the 2023 Oscars.

At a sold-out August 2022 show, Rock quipped that doing so would be like returning to the scene of a crime. He joked that him going back to the Oscars would be like asking Nicole Brown Simpson “to go back to the restaurant” where she left a pair of glasses the night she was murdered.

He also joked about the slap itself, pointing out that Smith once portrayed Muhammad Ali in a movie, making it an unfair fight. “He’s bigger than me,” Rock said. “The state of Nevada would not sanction a fight between me and Will Smith.”