Actress Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and husband Will Smith have secretly been separated for the last seven years.
In an interview to ‘People’ magazine, the ‘Set It Off’ and ‘Girls Trip’ actor, 52, has 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 couple share children Jaden and Willow, as well as Will’s son Trey, whom he had with ex-wife Sheree Zampino.
Jada admitted the pair were in fact living separately when Will Smith, 55, famously slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022, when the latter cracked a joke about his wife’s bald hairstyle. Jada suffers from alopecia. She noted that no permanent decisions have been made about the future of her marriage. “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,” she said.
“We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like.” She praised the children — Jaden, 25, Willow, 22, and Trey, 30, 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.”
In the chapter titled ‘The Holy Joke, the Holy Slap, and Holy Lessons’ of her new book ‘Worthy,’ Jada reveals what it was like to be mocked for her alopecia by Chris Rock and then witness her husband Will Smith slapping Chris on public television.
On October 17, the book ‘Worthy’ will be launched. Jada also claims in the book that Chris made fun of her at the Oscars for the second time, the previous time being in 2016. Will Smith notoriously smacked Chris after he remarked that Jada looked like “G.I. Jane” because of her bald head at the 94th Academy Awards, just days after she revealed she had alopecia.
Will Smith raced onto the stage, enraged by the jibe, and began to slap Chris for the joke. The smack came just seconds before he won Best Actor for his portrayal of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams’ adoring father in the film “King Richard.”
A tearful Smith revealed in a meandering acceptance speech that “love makes you do crazy things” – but neglected to apologise to Chris for the smack, according to the Daily Mail. During a shocking tell-all confessional in July 2020, Jada claimed to having an affair with musician August Alsina, 31, while married to Will.
The interview with ‘People’ comes as Jada continues her publicity tour for her new book, which has seen her open up about a number of difficult issues, including her struggle with “depression” and “despair” that began when she reached 40.
