Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith put on a united front in their first public appearance since news of their secret separation emerged.
The couple were supported by their children, Willow, 23, and Jaden, 25, as well as Will’s son Trey from his marriage to Sheree Zampino, at the Los Angeles premiere of Bad Boys: Ride or Die on Thursday.
Will, 55, and Jada, 52, were also joined by her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, 70, as they posed for family photos at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Will and Jada appeared in good spirits, embracing on the carpet, with the family all smiles as they supported Will on his big night.
Their appearance comes after they maintained their distance at the world premiere of Bad Boys: Ride or Die in Dubai last week. Despite Jada attending, she seemingly avoided posing for photos with Will, opting instead for solo shots or pictures with the film’s co-directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
Their united front in LA suggests they are working on rebuilding their marriage after Jada admitted that divorce is not an option for her and Will. Last year, she shocked fans by revealing that they had been living separate lives since quietly separating in 2016, despite continuing to make red carpet appearances together.
In an interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb in October, Jada explained why she waited so long to disclose their split.
“I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, right, and in regards to how do we present that to people, you know? And we hadn’t figured that out.”
She continued: “I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
In a separate interview with People, she shared: “We’re still figuring it out,” adding: “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together.”
She declared: “We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
Speaking of their split in November during an interview with Fearne Cotton on her podcast Happy Place, Jada said: “The biggest problem was that we were in that power struggle of romanticism…what we believed that the other person needed to be in order to feel good.
“I just wanted to be his everything, I wanted him to be my everything, I wanted to be so absorbed. And that wasn’t quite it either.”
Jada added: “I know people are confused, but I don’t know what to tell you. Having space, but never wanting to leave each other’s side. That’s what those years of separation taught us… I need to love him freely.”
Whatever their relationship looks like now, they are in it for the long haul as Jada has insisted several times that divorce from Will is not an option.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she said during her Today interview. “We will work through whatever, and I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
