Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and her husband Will Smith have secretly been separated for the last seven years – as she admitted that the pair, who tied the knot in 1997, are still trying to ‘figure out’ what the future of their marriage looks like.
The 52-year-old shared the shocking news about her relationship in a new interview with People magazine – before also opening up about their situation in a more detailed sit-down talk show with NBC News on Wednesday morning.
Speaking to Hoda Kotb on the Today show, Jada explained why her marriage to Will, 55, broke down, divulging the information she said, “By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
Referencing Jada’s book, Hoda said that the actress described the separation as being like a ‘divorce’, despite the pair not filing any paperwork, saying that she wrote, “It was not a divorce on paper. But it was a divorce.”
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In the interview Jada – who admitted in 2020 that she’d had an affair with singer August Alsina – said she considered a legal divorce but could never go through with it, candidly revealing that she made a ‘promise’ to her husband that she would never give him a ‘reason’ to get divorced, Dailymail reports.
‘I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,’ she continued. ‘We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.’
‘But you still live separately?’ Hoda probed, prompting Jada to confirm ‘We live separately’.
Speaking to People, Jada admitted the pair were in fact living separately when her husband slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022, when he strode onto the stage in a burst of fury over a joke that had been made about his wife’s bald hairstyle.
