'I watched a lot of porn': comedy legend's confession about his marriage

Chris Rock has opened up about the end of his marriage, and he isn't going easy on himself.

"I was not a great husband," the comedian, 61, told GQ. "I watched a lot of porn."

Then came the part he clearly wanted on the record: "I don't watch porn anymore. I haven't watched porn in five, six years."

Rock is a cover star of GQ's 2026 Men of the Year issue, published on Nov. 3, and the interview with writer Zach Baron goes further into his divorce than he has gone in years.

Rock married Malaak Compton-Rock in 1996. They separated in 2014, and the divorce was finalized in 2016. They share two daughters, Lola and Zahra.

He had already confessed to cheating in his 2018 Netflix special Tamborine, where he also talked about pornography. This time he talked about it without the punchlines.

He tested his powers

"It's not anything I'm proud of, but it's something I had to go through," he told GQ.

He was blunter still about what fame had done to him: "I tested my powers. I definitely realized I wasn't God or anywhere near him."

"I was severely humbled, as I should have been," he added.

The divorce hit his bank balance too. "Nobody has a successful divorce, so that takes time," he said. "Then once it's done, you're not sitting on the money you had before, so now you got to really make some money."

His answer was work. "So you go on tour, or two tours. So there was a lot of stand-up. There was a lot of getting my life together."

The diagnosis that changed everything

Rock told GQ he started therapy when he realized his personal life wasn't where he wanted it. "My personal life wasn't what I wanted it to be. And I'll leave it at that," he said.

Therapy led to a diagnosis of nonverbal learning disorder, which affects how a person reads social cues like tone and body language. "It made me realize how insensitive a lot of my behavior was throughout the years," he said.

For years, he admitted, he had a different explanation for why he couldn't connect with people. "I used to just blame everything on celebrity," he said. "I thought I was so f***ing unique."

But the marriage that ended a decade ago hasn't left him estranged from the family. This April, Rock walked the red carpet at a Los Angeles premiere alongside Compton-Rock and their daughter Zahra.

Something happened

The interview also touched on the night most people still ask him about: Will Smith slapping him on stage at the 2022 Oscars. Rock kept it short.

"Something happened. It wasn't cool. And I would like to move on," he said. "I have a plethora of art I'm trying to get out, and that's what I want you to pay attention to, not some crazy night."

That art right now is Misty Green, his new A24 film and the first movie he has directed since Top Five in 2014. He hinted that directing, not stand-up, is where he's heading. "I'm probably going to direct more. I don't know how much [more] stand-up I'm going to do," he said. "I got like six, seven specials, man. That's a lot."

He isn't calling it a retirement, though. "I'm not announcing anything or anything, but if I do it, I want to do it right."

As for his love life, Rock has been linked since the divorce to actresses Megalyn Echikunwoke and Lake Bell, according to E! News. This year he has been seen out with DJ Simone Henault, including at Wimbledon in July and on a stroll in New York City where the pair shared a kiss.

Compton-Rock has not commented on the GQ interview.