Jada Pinkett reveals she and Will Smith have been separated for over 7 years, but refuse to divorce
Pinkett Smith says the pair started living separate lives in 2016
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jada Pinkett Smith just dropped a bombshell regarding her relationship with husband Will Smith.
She said the couple has not been together for over seven years — but they appear as husband and wife for public appearances.
"We live separately," Pinkett Smith admitted in an interview with Hoda Kotb for the "Today" show while promoting her new book, "Worthy."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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 said.
Jada Pinkett Smith dropped a bombshell about her marriage to Will Smith — the couple have been separated for over seven years. (ABC via Getty Images)
Splitting in 2016, Pinkett Smith said she and Smith "were just exhausted with trying" to stay together. "I think we were both kind of just still, stuck in our fantasy, of what we thought the other person should be."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The actress suggested that "not being ready" to discuss the split publicly, as well as "still trying to figure out between the two of us, how to be in partnership" were reasons to harbor the secret. They even kept it quiet through a period of intense scrutiny, when the actress was accused of cheating on Smith with family friend August Alsina. In 2021, Pinkett Smith reluctantly confirmed her relationship with Alsina in a conversation with Smith on her now-defunct show "Red Table Talk."
"I got into a different kind of ‘entanglement' with August," the actress revealed, while also admitting she and Smith were separated at the time. She further clarified, "It was a relationship, absolutely."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}August Alsina and Jada Pinkett Smith pose on the red carpet together at the 2017 BET Awards. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
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This also means the couple was separated during Smith's infamous incident at the Academy Awards in 2022. Smith famously stormed the Oscar stage, slapping Chris Rock across the face after the comedian made a joke referencing Pinkett Smith's bald head. She suffers from alopecia.
Upon sitting down, Smith yelled at Rock, "Keep my wife's name out your f---ing mouth."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith had been separated for over six years when the Oscars slap happened. (Getty Images)
"I thought, ‘This is a skit," Pinkett Smith told People magazine of the attack. "I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’" she remembers thinking. "It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit."
"I’m going to be by his side," she said of Smith, 55, "but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself."
Jada Pinkett Smith initially thought Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars was "a skit." (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The couple's relationship is complicated, and Pinkett Smith said that they are "still figuring it out."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us," she said.
Will Smith appeared with Jada Pinkett Smith, his son Trey and the couple's two kids, Jaden and Willow, at the premiere of "Emancipation" in November 2022. (Amy Sussman/WireImage/Getty Images)
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Marrying in 1997, they share son Jaden, 25 and daughter Willow, 22. Smith has another son Trey, 30, whom Pinkett Smith calls her "bonus son," with his ex-wife Sheree Zampino.