Making use of his Instagram account, the actor shares a heartwarming message for the tennis star, who pulled out of the French Open after she was fined $15,000 for refusing to take part in a press conference.
- Jun 4, 2021
AceShowbiz - Will Smith is the latest celebrity who ralies behind Naomi Osaka after she withdrew from French Open after being fined for refusing to participate in a press conference to protect her mental health. Making use of his Instagram account, the actor shares a heartwarming message for the tennis star.
In the Thursday, June 3 post on the photo-sharing platform, Will shared pictures featuring a handwritten message for Naomi. It read, "Hey Naomi, You are Right. They are Wrong." The "Aladdin" actor, who also shared a picture of him holding the paper with the message, concluded it with saying, "I am with You."
Prior to this, 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps also weighed in on the matter during an interview with Time published on Wednesday, June 2. Applauding the No. 2 female tennis player in the world for getting candid about her mental health issue, Michael said, "I felt very happy after reading her message because she's showing that vulnerability. She's showing a side of her that we haven't seen before, and that's so powerful."
Michael, who is also a mental health advocate who executive-produced a 2020 documentary focusing on athletes' mental wellness, went on to say, "It's definitely going to be a game-changer in mental health moving forward." He admitted that he was shocked to see how much backlash that Naomi got over her decision to not participate in the contractual press conference. "I was almost shocked in a way," he shared, "especially with everything I feel like the world has learned about mental health over the last year."
He, however, was happy to find out that there were people who support Naomi, saying, "Because yes, then we are understanding that this is something that, it doesn't matter if you're number one in the world or the average Joe, anybody can go through this." Emphasizing that mental health issue "is real," Michael concluded, "I hope this is the breaking point of really being able to open up and save more lives."
On Monday, May 31, Naomi announced her decision to pull out of the French Open after she was fined $15,000 and threatened with disqualification for refusing to take part in a press conference over the weekend. "I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. More importantly, I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly," Naomi penned on Instagram. "The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that."
