Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that Will Smith had a “bad day” when he slapped Chris Rock during Sunday’s Academy Awards, and shouldn’t have to return the Oscar he won.

During an appearance on Fox 5, Adams explained that though “violence is never the answer” Smith should not be judged too harshly on his actions when he failed to control his “passion.”

“Violence is never the answer. It’s a painful moment,” he told “Good Day New York.”

“But you know, sometimes when you’re dealing with [an] illness of a loved one, you become emotional,” he added. “And sometimes we have to think through our actions and not react through our passion.”

Asked by host Rosanna Scotto if the “King Richard” actor should be forced to give back the Best Actor award he won that evening, the tough-on-crime retired NYPD captain replied, “I don’t think he should.”

“The worst day in our life should not be the description of our entire life,” Adams continued. “You know, Will Smith has been an amazing actor, humanitarian. He has been a real leader. I think he had a bad day. And you know, I don’t believe we should define his entire life — we all have bad days. I have bad days, you know?”

“It was a bad day, violence should never be used, but I think Will — he apologized, he said he was wrong, he’s embarrassed,” the mayor added. “I think that we should accept his apology.”

Industry insiders previously told The Post Smith may be asked to hand back his Best Actor statuette following his live-TV smack of Rock.

Adams remarks on the shocking moment came after he declined Monday to share his thoughts on the controversy.

“I was in the subway station last night. I don’t have time for TV,” Adams told reporters at a childcare center in Queens.

During the 94th Academy Awards Sunday evening, Smith, 53, walked up to the stage and delivered an open-handed whack in the head to Rock, 57, after the comedian implied the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, looked like the buzz cut-sporting Demi Moore in the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane.”

Smith — who initially laughed at Rock’s joke while his wife rolled her eyes — returned to his seat then screamed twice at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth.”

“Wow, dude, it was a ‘G.I. Jane’ joke,” a stunned Rock replied before quipping, “That was, uh, the greatest night in the history of television.”

Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, and in recent years has been vocal about her experiences with the hair loss the condition causes.

Smith has since apologized to Rock, saying Monday in an Instagram post that his conduct was “out of line” and that he was “embarrassed” by it.  

Also Wednesday, Adams during his morning TV appearance continued to defend his new efforts to sweep homeless encampments — insisting that the city’s more than 400 notoriously dangerous and decrepit facilities dedicated to temporarily sheltering about 45,000 homeless people are the best options for those on the streets.

“It’s the safest place for people who are homeless,” he said on Fox 5. “We’re always going to improve our shelter system. I’ve been visiting shelters all over unannounced, because I want to see the product, I want to make sure people have a suitable living environment with dignity. There’s no dignity living on the street.”

The Post reported earlier this month that many homeless residents say they’d rather take their chances on the street over entering a system they say is home to cockroaches in the food and mice crawling on beds as well as constant violence and thefts.

The mayor also again promised to fix the “bureaucratic nightmare” that The Post reported has resulted in an estimated 2,500 city-funded apartments for homeless and down-on-their luck Big Apple residents sitting vacant.

“There is a serious number of units that are empty, and we’re going to put in place a real plan to expedite that,” he said on the morning program, adding the situation was “unacceptable.

“Too much bureaucracy, and not enough coordination. The team is coming together to make sure that we don’t make the mistakes of the past.”

In addition, the mayor touted his anti-rule-breaking subway safety initiative he announced in February, noting that the NYPD’s highest-ranking chiefs have started patrolling the transit system.

“I’m in the subway just about every night,” Adams claimed. “We’re doing a great job in executing the plan, our senior leadership is down there, my chiefs are down there like I am.”