Tatyana Ali
Seemingly Shades Val’s ‘Fresh Prince’ Reference
Published
Tatyana Ali looks like she’s quietly letting her fans know where she stands on the ‘Fresh Prince’ reference that got Val Chmerkovskiy suspended from “Dancing with the Stars.”
Here’s the deal … Tatyana — who’s competing on ‘DWTS’ this season — will be taking the stage with “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” co-star Alfonso Ribeiro to perform a touching tribute to their late TV dad James Avery for the dancing competition show’s “Dedication Week.”
The actress went on TikTok to talk about how meaningful this dance is … but one fan’s comment brought recent Val’s drama with Carrie Ann Inaba into the mix.
The fan wrote … “This is why I’m so mad Val used James legacy, your legacy, your work to threaten Carrie Ann. I love the show and I’m so happy I grew up with James Avery on my screen.”
What’s interesting about this is Tatyana liked the comment … seemingly indicating that she agrees with the commenter that Val’s post was in poor taste.
As you know, the ‘DWTS’ pro is suspended this week for saying “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night” in response to Carrie Ann dinging his wife Jenna Johnson for including a lift that wasn’t allowed in her dance with Harry Shum Jr.
The issue here is that people are taking that as a reference to Will Smith infamously slapping Chris Rock for making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. Will famously starred as ‘Fresh Prince.’
We broke the story … Carrie Ann was so upset by Val’s post that she went straight to BBC Productions to complain about the comment herself.
Val has since apologized — although he referenced the Oscars slap again, saying … “In a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme to ‘keep my wife’s name’ out of the conversation, without stopping to think what else that reference could imply, which was genuinely never my intention.”
It’s unclear if Val will still get paid during his suspension.
