Will Smith has finally addressed Jada Pinkett Smith’s many claims about her partner and their marriage.
In recent years, Pinkett Smith, 52, has shared several revelations about her life behind closed doors with the Oscar-winning King Richard actor, 55.
The latest detail, shared in Matrix Revolutions actor Pinkett Smith’s new memoir, is the fact she has been “separated” from Smith for seven years.
The actor revealed this while saying she was “shocked” that Smith had called her his “wife” while supporting her against a Chris Rock joke at the 2022 Oscars, which infamously ended with Smith hitting Rock in the face on-stage.
In a separate interview with People in promotion of her forthcoming memoir, Pinkett Smith revealed that, while the pair aren’t legally divorced, they have been living separately since 2016.
Smith has now supported Pinkett Smith once again, this time in an on-the-record statement shared to The New York Times, who interviewed the latter.
The outlet notes that Smith said his wife’s memoir, titled Worthy, “kind of woke him up” and that he has now realised she is more “resilient, clever and compassionate than he’d understood”.
He added: “When you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life, a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.”
Smith married Jada Pinkett in 1997 after divorcing actor Sheree Zampino two years earlier. They first met after the latter’s failed auditioned for a role as Smith’s character’s girlfriend on the 1990s series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Rumours that the couple have an open relationship began circulating after Pinkett Smith told The Huffington Post in 2013: “Will is his own man. I’m here as his partner, but he is his own man.”
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith photographed in 2015— (Getty Images)
She elaborated upon her quotes while speaking to Howard Stern in 2015. “At the end of the day, I’m not here to be anybody’s watcher,” she said. “I trust that Will is a man of integrity. So, he’s got all the freedom in the world.”
However, after rumours about the couple’s relationship continued, Pinkett Smith wrote on her Facebook page: “Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship... this means we have a GROWN one.”
In 2020, singer August Alsina claimed Smith had given “his blessing” for him to have a relationship with Pinkett Smith, who later clarified she had an “entanglement“ with Alsina while she and her husband were “separated amicably”.
Smith and Pinkett Smith have two children together: Jaden Smith – who was born in 1998 – and daughter, Willow, who was born in 2000.
Worthy will be published on Tuesday (17 October).
