Hollywood couple, Will Smith and Jada Smith have been incredibly candid about the ups and downs of their relationship. In 2023, Jada Pinkett Smith revealed that the couple has been separated since 2016 but hasn’t been divorced officially.
Over the years, because of their candid conversations about their relationship, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have found themselves under the spotlight and public scrutiny. Jada Pinkett Smith explains the reason why she doesn’t think she will ever reach a point where she feels that she wants to legally separate from Will Smith.
Jada Smith admits to not being mature enough to go ahead with divorce
Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in her memoir, Unworthy, that she and her husband Will Smith have been separated since 2016. She mentioned during an interview on Today’s Show that by the time they got to 2016, they were just exhausted with trying to note that they were both stuck in their fantasy of what they assumed the other person would be.
The couple, on an episode of Red Table Talk, once quoted the Bad Boys franchise while explaining their stance on divorce. They said; ‘We ride together. We die together. Bad marriage for life.’ In 2018, the actress admitted on Red Table Talk that she was not mature enough to go ahead with divorce, explaining,
“For me personally, I’m not mature enough to have a divorce. I’m just not. I don’t think I would ever be mature enough, I don’t. Because when you have to start going in, breaking up assets, that’ right there. Let me tell you the truth, that’s when the red table turns upside down and it won’t be red no more.”
Will Smith, who appeared on TIDAL’s Rap Radar Podcast at the time, confessed that they refer to themselves as life partners. He explained (via People),
“Where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There’s no deal-breaker. There’s nothing she could do—ever. Nothing that would break our relationship. She has my support till death; you know what I mean, and it feels so good to get to that space where you’re not complaining, worrying, and demanding that a person be a certain thing.”
During the couple’s appearance on 2020’s Red Table Talk, the couple opened up about Jada Smith’s entanglement with August Alsina while they were separated in 2016. Will Smith’s profile for GQ in 2021 noted that it wasn’t just Jada Pinkett Smith who was engaging in other s*xual relationships, but the actor refused to comment any further.
Jada Smith calls the infamous Oscars slap a ‘holy slap’
During the promotions for her memoir in 2023, Jada Pinkett Smith spoke to the Daily Mail’s YOU Magazine, where she described the infamous 2022 Academy Awards altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock as a ‘holy slap’, citing many positive things that followed. She said,
“That moment of the s*** hitting the fan is when you see where you really are. After all those years trying to figure out if I would leave Will’s side, it took that slap for me to see I will never leave him. Who knows where our relationship would be if that hadn’t happened?”
The Girls Trip actress in her conversation with People magazine, admitted that just like everyone else, she thought that the slap was a part of the skit and kept thinking that there was no way Will Smith would hit him. It wasn’t until the actor started to walk back to his chair that she realized that it wasn’t a skit.
Jada Smith mentioned that she is always going to be by his side but is also going to allow him to figure out the situation on his own. She acknowledged the support she gets from the kids Jaden, Willow, and Trey (Will Smith shares Trey with his first wife, Sheree Zampino).
