Jada Pinkett Smith called Will Smith her ‘life partner’ on Monday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert despite recently revealing that they’ve been separated since 2016.
The 52-year-old actress appeared remotely on the CBS talk show after Stephen, 59, tested positive for COVID.
‘Welcome back to 2020,’ Stephen said while filming from his house. ‘Let’s do it all again.’
Her memoir, Worthy garnering attention
Stephen held up Jada’s new book titled Worthy and asked her if she was surprised it was getting so much attention.
‘I knew it was going to get some attention,’ Jada admitted.
‘I am surprised it is getting as much attention as it is, but you know I think it all has a lot to do with that there’s not a lot of programing on TV,’ she added with a giggle.
‘People are very interested in you and your family,’ Stephen said.
‘People were really surprised to find out that you and your former husband, still husband or former husband?
‘That’s still my man,’ Jada said.
‘I just call us life partners, but he’s my dude. He’s my right hand.’
Stephen said that people were surprised when she revealed that she and Will, 55, had been separated since 2016 and asked why she decided only recently to share that information with the public.
‘I wasn’t ready,’ Jada said. ‘Listen, uncoupling consciously is a very difficult thing. Right? And so, in this process of learning how to I had a lot of things I had to resolve so it wasn’t like a war in public.
‘I didn’t want that for Will and I. And so I really needed time to get myself together.’
Jada described some effects 2022 Oscars had on her
Jada said the incident at the 2022 Oscars when Will slapped comedian Chris Rock, 58, on national television actually brought them closer.
‘And in that process of my healing, I just realized, do I really want to be divorced? Do I really want to be separated?,’ Jada said.
‘And then the Oscars came. And believe it or not, it’s like, it’s crazy how intense events can bring people together. Because once the Oscars happen, Will and I got closer.’
Stephen asked her how that happened.
‘Before the Oscars occurred, Will had just finished a very difficult film that I cannot name, but he played a slave, and a lot of things came up for him, and he asked if we could get back into some therapeutic spaces together,’ Jada said.
‘And so we started doing some really deep work together, and so when he got nominated, He was like, ”there’s nobody I want to share this moment with more than you” and I was really touched because it wasn’t a guarantee that I was going to go with him and he was like, will you go with me?’, she added.
Jada didn’t go to the Oscars as Will’s wife
Jada said initially she didn’t feel like she was going to the Oscars as Will’s wife.
‘I didn’t go to the Oscars necessarily as Will’s wife, but when the event occurred, I knew in that moment that I wasn’t going to leave his side,’ Jada said.
But left the Oscars as Will’s wife
‘And I knew in that moment that I didn’t go to that theater as his wife, but I was leaving as his wife, and I was gonna stand by his side no matter what. And that’s when I knew ”I love this man”.
‘I called it the Holy Joke, the Holy Slap, and Holy Lessons,’ Jada said of the infamous Oscars slap.
‘I had to learn not to take any of it personally,’ Jada said. ‘I learned so much about shadow, my shadow, Will’s shadow, just everybody’s shadow.
‘Chris Rock’s shadow?’ Stephen said. ‘Because I think Will slapped it right out of him.’
Jada laughed and continued that she also learned during that time about unconditional love.
She claimed the slap was a culmination of years of stuff between Will and Chris but didn’t elaborate and said it was their story to tell.
READ ALSO: Jada Pinkett Smith says Chris Rock asked me out DURING my ‘marriage troubles’ with Will Smith
‘Learning that we’re all here trying to figure out this thing called life and seeing how there was such, this spiritual clash on the stage, you know years and years of stuff between Will and Chris that just came to a head,’ she said.
Stephen asked her if she was part of that story and Jada said, ‘I’m actually not.’
Jada also shared that it was difficult for her to be vulnerable.
‘I’ve really have learned how to have your public life and then you have your inner family sanctum life, and I’ve been very lucky that with my family we’ve been able to do some really, really deep work together as a family and really strengthen our bonds in those places of vulnerability and tenderness. And really being able to connect in such powerful ways,’ Jada said.
