Jada Pinkett Smith has dropped a bombshell about her marriage to 55-year-old actor Will Smith.
According to the 52-year-old actress, she and Will have been leading “completely separate lives” since 2016, even though they never officially divorced.
The revelation comes during a preview of her interview with Today‘s Hoda Kotb, who asks Jada about her upcoming book, Worthy, set to be released on Oct. 17. Hoda points out that one of the most surprising revelations in the book is the couple’s decision to live separately starting in 2016.
Jada Pinkett Smith confirms this revelation, saying, “Yes, it was not a divorce on paper, but it was a divorce.”
The separation began seven years ago, as Jada confirms during the interview, making it a long-standing arrangement that they have successfully kept hidden from the public.
Hoda, who was clearly taken aback by the admission, asks Jada why they chose to maintain this unique arrangement, to which Jada responds, “I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in a partnership, and in regards to how do we present that to people, you know? And we hadn’t figured that out.”
When Hoda presses for more details about the reasons behind the separation, Jada reveals, “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.”
This admission suggests that the couple was facing personal struggles and relationship challenges that eventually led to their unconventional decision.
Despite the separation, Jada shares that she made a promise to herself and Will to never allow their marriage to result in a divorce. “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she states.
“But you still live separately,” asks Hoda. Jada confirms, “We live separately.”
Intriguingly, the separation was kept under wraps, and their public statements have never hinted at any trouble in their marriage. However, in 2020, singer August Alsina claimed that he had an affair with Jada, stating that Will had given his consent. At the time, the couple’s representative vehemently denied these claims. Nonetheless, Jada later referred to the relationship as an “entanglement” and admitted that she and Will had been privately separated during the affair.
Around a year later, Will hinted that he and Jada had an open marriage, noting that they believed that their union should not “feel like a prison.” In a November 2022 GQ cover story, Smith said, “I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences and the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
The revelation of their separation also brings into focus the fact that the public perception of Jada as the sole participant in an extramarital affair, an “entanglement,” was not the complete truth, as Will acknowledged in the GQ interview.