The talk show host and actress admitted in an NBC News interview that they "live separately," but they are still married.
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| In 2022, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attended the Oscars. Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Now that rumors regarding one of Hollywood's most well-known couples have been dispelled: Although they are not yet formally divorced, the actress Jada Pinkett Smith has acknowledged that she and Will Smith have been living apart for over seven years.
The disclosure was made by Pinkett Smith, a talk-show presenter herself, in an interview with NBC News, a portion of which was previewed on Wednesday. The interview is a part of Pinkett Smith's series of media appearances to promote the release of her new memoir, "Worthy."
Pinkett Smith stated that she and Smith made the decision to live separate lives in 2016 in the interview with anchor Hoda Kotb from Baltimore, which will be televised in its entirety in a prime-time special on Friday. The information is one of the intimate details disclosed in the memoir, which will be published on October 17.
Pinkett Smith, an Academy Award-winning actress, said of her relationship with Smith, an actor, "Why it fractured — that's a lot of things." "I believe that by the year 2016, we had simply given up trying."
She continued, "I think we were both still kind of caught in our fantasy of what we believed the other person should be.
The couple wed in 1997 and went on to establish one of the most enduring and well-known celebrity families. Jaden Smith and Willow Smith, their two children, are both performers in the entertainment industry.
The couple's nearly 26-year marriage has long been the subject of rumors, but they have also been transparent about their difficulties. In a Facebook post in 2013, Pinkett Smith shot down rumors that the pair had an open relationship, calling theirs "grown" rather than "open."
In a later, popular episode of Pinkett Smith's talk show Red Table Talk from 2020, the couple opened out more candidly about their marriage. At that time, Pinkett Smith disclosed that the pair had temporarily broken up and that she had started an "entanglement" with singer August Alsina. Smith and Pinkett Smith had a conversation in which Smith claimed, "You and I were going through a very difficult time."
Smith replied, "I was done with you," adding that they had decided to part ways. I thought we might be done, truly.
Even while they have often stated their dedication to one another as partners over the years, it now seems that that separation was more permanent than the couple initially claimed. The actress admitted that she kept their relationship a secret because she felt that the two weren't "ready yet" for it given how new their relationship was. How should we explain that to people?" And we hadn't made the connection," she stated.
More people became aware of their relationship when Smith smacked comedian Chris Rock onstage at the Academy Awards broadcast in 2022 after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith's haircut. Smith was prohibited from attending the Oscars for ten years due to the shocking incident, which aroused so much discussion that it became known as simply "The Slap."
Although they have been apart since 2016, the couple has not yet requested a divorce. "I swore there would never be a justification for us to get divorced. In NBC interview teasers, Pinkett stated, "We will work through everything. Simply said, "I just haven't been able to break that promise."