Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Surface Publicly, First Time Since Oscars Slap - TMZ

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett put on a united front as they stepped out in public together for the first time since the Oscars slap -- and hubby was leading the charge with a smile.

It looks like she might've been grabbing his hand in some of these shots ...

Will explained his actions that night, saying Jada's eye-roll did not fire him up and spur him to storm the stage -- it sounds like it was just built-up bad blood between the Smiths and Chris Rock that led to it ...

He said he wanted to talk with Chris -- but noted CR hasn't taken him up on that ...