The actress revealed that they’ve been separated for seven years and are still trying to figure out exactly where they stand at the moment.
Jada Pinkett Smith has become one of the most talked about subjects since she gave a very candid interview to People magazine on Wednesday (11). The 52-year-old actress’ main revelation was about her marriage to Will Smith, when she said that they have been secretly separated for seven years.
It’s no secret, however, that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have had a difficult romance over the years. The pair, who began dating in 1995 and have two children together, have not failed to share their ‘shenanigans’ with fans, from affairs with third parties to silent separations.
The origin
Will and Jada met at an audition for ‘Crazy in the Park’ in 1994, when he was still married to Sheree Zampino, with whom he shares son Trey Smith. Jada made it clear to ‘Red Table Talk’ listeners in 2018 that they “didn’t have an affair while he was married”.
Will entered the conversation to say that he was really interested in Jada even before he met Sheree Zampino, whom he married. He saw Jada on TV and said he thought her “energy would be magical”.
Will later spoke of his reunion with Jada after Sheree divorced him in 1995. After discovering that she wasn’t seeing anyone, he said: “Cool, so now you’re seeing me”. And it all officially began.
Engagement and marriage
In November 1997, Will proposed to Jada while they were in bed; by then, the two were already living together in Los Angeles. “The next day,” they told People, “they found out they were pregnant,” Jada revealed in a 1998 interview.
In 2018, Jada admitted on her show, ‘Red Table Talk’, that she was “upset” to have to walk down the aisle while three months pregnant with her first child, after being “pressured” by her family. Will, however, said: “There hasn’t been a day in my life when I’ve wanted anything other than to get married and have a family.”
They married in December 1997 in Maryland, USA.
The children
Jada became a mother in July 1998, when Jaden Smith was born; in October 2000, it was Willow Smith’s turn to come into the world. The little ones joined Trey, from Will’s first marriage, whom Jada has often referred to as her “bonus” child.
“It’s great when you can have a close relationship with a child who doesn’t necessarily see you as an immediate mother, but who trusts you,” she explained in 2014. “There’s a different kind of closeness. Trey is kind of my friend.”
Rumors of an open marriage
In 2013, Jada addressed speculation that she and Will were in an open relationship, claiming that they simply had a more “relaxed” dynamic. “I always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want, as long as you look in the mirror and you look good,'” she told HuffPost at the time. “At the end of the day, Will is his own man.”
Later, on social media, she added: “Will and I can do whatever we want because we TRUST each other to do it. It does NOT mean we have an open relationship… It means we have a GROWING relationship.”
Different labels
In July 2018, Will and Jada didn’t refer to themselves as “married”, but rather as “life partners”, the actor himself revealed in a podcast. “You get into that place where you realize that you’re literally with someone for the rest of your life,” he explained at the time. “There’s no deal-breaker. There’s nothing she can do – ever.”
“Nothing that could break our relationship,” Will continued. “She has my support to the death and it’s so nice to get to this place.”
No one belongs to anyone, but look
In 2020, rapper August Alsina claimed to have had an affair with Jada two years earlier. Jada and August’s history is somewhat hazy, as they had some conflicting statements during the period. In 2020, the rapper said: “I actually sat down with Will and talked. Because of the transformation of the marriage into a life partnership in which they spoke several times, and without involving romance, he gave me his blessing,” he said. At the time, a representative for the couple said it wasn’t true.
In March of this year, however, Will assured us: “There has never been any infidelity in our marriage. Jada and I talked about everything and we were never surprised by anything.”
In 2021, while promoting his memoir, Will admitted that Jada was not the “only one involved in other sexual relationships” and called his union with her “unconventional”. “Marriage for us cannot be a prison,” said the Oscar winner. “The freedoms we gave each other and the unconditional support, for me, is the highest definition of love.”
Kind of over
In another candid conversation, the couple also admitted to splitting up in 2011, after Will planned a 40th birthday for Jada which, according to her, was a “ridiculous display of his ego”.
Will also addressed these marital dramas in his autobiography published in November 2021. “Our marriage wasn’t working,” he recalled. “We couldn’t pretend any more. We were both unhappy and clearly something had to change.”
The slap
Who doesn’t remember? Will lost his temper at the 2022 Oscars when Chris Rock made fun of Jada’s baldness during a presentation at the ceremony. “Take my wife’s name out of your mouth,” he declared, before getting up and slapping the comedian in the face.
Jada told People in this most recent conversation that she initially thought the slap was a “skit”: “I was like, ‘There’s no way Will hit him [for real]’.”
Advertisement with a seven-year delay
Jada revealed in the same interview with People that she and Will have been separated since 2016. “We’re still trying to figure it out,” she said. “We’ve done some really heavy work together. We have a deep love for each other and we’re going to figure out what that means for us.”
In a subsequent interview with the Today show, Jada explained that she and Will “live apart”, despite her willingness to “work it out” and “never… get divorced”.