Slap me silly and call me Chris Rock because Jada Pinkett Smith just revealed that she’s been separated from Will Smith for seven years. YES, SEVEN YEARS.
Speaking to journalist Hoda Kotb on the American Breakfast News show TODAY to promote her upcoming memoir Worthy, Jada explained that the pair separated in 2016 and behind closed doors, the former spouses have been living completely separate lives.
“Why didn’t they just release a joint notes app statement?” I hear you ask.
Well, Jada says they just didn’t know how to approach telling the public.
“I think just not being ready yet, still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership and in regards to how do we present that to people. And we hadn’t figured that out,” Jada explained.
“Why it fractured? That’s a lot of things.
“I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
Instead of getting a divorce, they decided to honour the commitment they made to each other – in a way that made sense to them.
“I made a promise that there will ever be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she stated.
“We will work through whatever, and I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
Speaking to PEOPLE, Jada confirmed that neither her nor Will have ever cheated or had an open relationship, despite reports.
“We eliminated the chance of betrayal,” she told the publication.
“It’s like, ‘Let’s talk about it. Let’s work through it together. Let’s be in partnership. Let’s not keep each other in the dark.’
“I think where that got confusing is that as time went on, there were different stages in my marriage where Will and I decided we were not together.
“We didn’t tell the public, where I was actually thinking about divorcing, separating. There’ve been several of those where we’ve gone and lived our separate lives. So I think within that is where people might’ve thought that ‘Oh, they must be having an open relationship.'”
The news of their literal years-old split comes as a shock because the dynamic duo have flat-out denied claims that they’ve separated multiple times. And they attend all big dog industry events together – including the infamous 2022 Oscars where Will Smith slapped the living bejeezus out of Chris Rock for a joke about Jada.
Here’s a cheeky reminder if you want to watch it all over again.
The juiciest bit is, apparently there’s a whole backstory to the slap that we have no idea about.
According to Koda, the journo who read the memoir front-to-back before her interview with Jada, there’s a whole heap of tea that led to the slap. And while we’ll have to wait a whopping five days until Worthy is on the stands for all the goss, Jada might have given us a hint during her interview with PEOPLE.
She explained that there might be a misunderstanding between Chris and Will that goes as far back as the 2016 Oscars when Will was snubbed for his performance in Concussion, and no actors of colour were recognised in the big nominations that year. Jada launched her support for the #OscarsSoWhite movement which boycotted the awards show. She says she asked Chris, who was hosting that year, to step down in support.
But on the other side of the spectrum, she also revealed that Chris asked her out once.
“I think every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce,” she told the publication.
“And this particular summer, Chris, he thought that we were getting a divorce. So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumors.’ He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”
Rumours of an open relationship kicked off in n 2020 after musician August Alsina shared in an interview with American radio personality Angela Yee that he’d had a relationship with Jada after meeting her through her son Jaden in 2015.
During this interview, August spilt the tea in a very heartfelt way.
“I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership that they’ve spoken on several times and not involving romanticising,” he said.
He gave me his blessing and I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life. And I truly, and really really, deeply loved and have a tonne of love for her.”
Hindsight is 20/20 folks.
After this interview came out, Jada initially denied August’s claims that they had a relationship. But she eventually explained on her podcast Red Table Talk that she and Will had taken a marriage hiatus and while they were on a break, she dated August.
“We decided that we were going to separate for a period of time and you go figure out how to make yourself happy and I’ll figure out how to make myself happy.
“From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August,” she said.
Well, there you have it. To find out more about Jada’s life and her arrangement with Will Smith, make sure to check out her memoir Worthy which will be on sale from October 17.
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