Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and her husband Will Smith have secretly been separated for the last seven years after growing ‘exhausted’ of trying to save ‘fractured’ marriage
The 52-year-old shared the shock news during a new interview with People before also opening up about their situation in detail in a sit-down with NBC News on Wednesday.
Speaking to Hoda Kotb on the show, Jada explained why her marriage to Will, 55, broke down, saying: ‘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.’
Jada Pinkett Smith’s promise to Will Smith
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, revealing that she made a ‘promise’ to her husband that she would never give him a ‘reason’ to get divorced.
‘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 over a joke that had been made about his wife’s bald hairstyle.
She noted that no permanent decisions have been made about the future of her marriage, explaining that she and Will are ‘still figuring it out’.
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‘We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,’ she said.
Support from children
‘We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like.’
Jada went on to praise her children, Jaden, 25, Willow, 22, and Trey, 30, who is Will’s son from a previous relationship for standing by her during this rocky time in her relationship.
‘My children, they’re little gurus. They’ve taught me a deep sense of self-acceptance,’ she said.
‘They love every part of me. The level of love, unconditional love that they have for me and their dad.
‘And it’s one thing to want to be the person that gives that unconditional love. And then there’s, to be the recipient of that.’
