Jada Pinkett Smith has said she and husband Will are taking legal action against his “former friend/assistant” for alleging that the actor had sex with his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Duane Martin.
Earlier this week, Brother Bilaal, who claims to be Smith’s friend of 40 years and his former assistant, told the Unwine With Tasha K podcast that he walked in on Smith and Martin having sex during the time of Fresh Prince’s filming.
Smith’s team have vehemently denied the allegation, telling TMZ: “This story is completely fabricated and the claim is unequivocally false.”
Pinkett Smith further denied the allegations during an appearance on The Breakfast Club radio show on Wednesday (15 November).
“We’re going to take legal action,” the 52-year-old said.
“It’s one thing to have your opinion on somebody versus making up salacious, malicious stories,” Pinkett Smith said, calling the allegations “ridiculous”.
The Independent has reached out to Smith’s representatives for further comment.
Representatives for Bilaal and Martin were not immediately available to reach for comment.
Last month, Smith, 55, addressed the many revelations about his marriage shared in Pinkett Smith’s new memoir, Worthy.
Smith shared a statement with The New York Times, saying that the memoir “kind of woke him up” and that he has now realised his wife is more “resilient, clever and compassionate than he’d understood”.
He added: “When you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life, a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.”
Smith married Jada Pinkett in 1997 after divorcing actor Sheree Zampino two years earlier. They first met after the latter’s failed audition for a role as Smith’s character’s girlfriend on the 1990s series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Rumours that the couple have an open relationship began circulating after Pinkett Smith told The Huffington Post in 2013: “Will is his own man. I’m here as his partner, but he is his own man.”
In 2020, singer August Alsina claimed Smith had given “his blessing” for him to have a relationship with Pinkett Smith, who later clarified she had an “entanglement“ with Alsina while she and her husband were “separated amicably”.
Smith and Pinkett Smith have two children together: Jaden Smith – who was born in 1998 – and daughter, Willow, who was born in 2000.
