JADA PINKETT SMITH has revealed that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016.
In an interview with American television channel NBC, the actress revealed that she and her ex-husband decided to “live separate lives” from one another for the past seven years.
Pinkett Smith agreed with the interviewer that while the separation was “not a divorce on paper”, the pair had been separated since 2016. The reveal was made in her new book ‘Worthy’.
Asked why the couple had decided not to disclose the split publicly, Pinkett Smith said the pair had decided keep quiet about the split until they could figure out how to remain a partnership.
“Still trying to figure out, between the two of us, how to be in partnership [...] in regards to ‘How do we present that to people?’. And we hadn’t figured that out,” she said.
Rumors of affairs and an open marriage were repeatedly denied by the couple for many years.
In 2020, Pinkett Smith openly discussed an extramarital “entanglement” on her ‘Red Table Talk’ show with singer August Alsina, a friend of her son’s, some years earlier, during a period of separation from her husband.
However, she reassured viewers of the show that she and Will Smith had maintained their relationship and that the pair were still married.
In 2021, Will Smith told GQ that the couple had both engaged in relationships outside of their marriage, claiming : “Jada never believed in conventional marriage,”.
He added: “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison.”
In January 2022, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the live broadcast of the Oscars, after Rock had made a joke about Pinkett Smith, attempting to make light of her alopecia.
In the excerpt, Pinkett Smith recalls that she initially thought the slap was a “skit,” and even once she realized it wasn’t remained “unclear on the reason why Will is so upset.”
“We had been living separate lives and were there as family, not as husband and wife,” she writes.
Includes reporting from © AFP 2023
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