Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed why she and her husband Will Smith never signed a prenuptial agreement before getting married.
The former talk show host, 52, spoke candidly about her husband during a recent interview with Parade. While discussing her new memoir, Worthy, Jada revealed that she and Will didn’t sign a prenup when they were married in 1997 because they knew divorce wasn’t in the cards for them.
“Listen, weddings are beautiful, but they can be very romanticised,” Jada said. “I feel that was a very real moment for the two of us to look each other in the eyes, recognise that there would be tough times in this journey and to say to each other: ‘No matter what, we’re going to figure it out and that’s why we don’t need a prenup, because I’m making a promise that divorce won’t be necessary, that we will figure this out.’”
The Girls Trip star explained how she and Will casually promised not to get a divorce, and how that decision impacted their perspective on on marriage.
“And we made that promise to each other without all of the bridal wedding beauty; it was just sitting on a log in his mother’s backyard, and going: ‘Hey’ - having to really look at the possibility of us not being together,” she said.
This isn’t the first time that Jada has opened up about her long-term commitment to her husband. During an interview with Hoda Kotb for Today, which aired on 13 October, the actor confirmed that she and her partner have been living “completely separate lives” for the past seven years. However, according to Jada, their choice to live in separate homes doesn’t mean that they’ll be getting divorced anytime soon.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she said. “We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
When asked why she and Will didn’t “just amicably divorce,” Jada simply replied: “We don’t want to.”
She then explained how her family shaped that decision, as she and the King Richard star share two children - Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22. Will also has a 30-year-old son, Trey, who he shares with ex-wife Sheree Zampino. “We love our family and we love each other. It’s more of a life partnership," Jada explained. "Now, 10 years from now, Hoda, who knows?”
During a 2018 episode of her Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk, Jada doubled down on her stance about divorce, as she recalled the the hard conversation she had with Will about the topic before they got married.
“I told Will from the gate, I said let me tell you something: ‘If you marry me, know this: we’re gonna be together. We’re going to be under the same roof,’” she said. “For me personally, I’m not mature enough to have a divorce, I’m just not. I don’t think I would ever be mature enough, I don’t.”
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star has also shared similar sentiments, as he said during an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres Show that “divorce just can’t be an option” for him and Jada. “It’s really that simple. And I think that’s the problem with LA - there are so many options. So a huge part of the success for [Jada] and I is that we just removed the other options.”
Last week, Jada made headlines when she revealed that at the time of the 2022 Academy Awards, when Will slapped Chris Rock, she and her husband had been separated for six years. “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,” she said during an interview with People. “We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
Jada then praised her children for how they’ve helped her grow, adding: “My children, they’re little gurus. They’ve taught me a deep sense of self-acceptance.”
On 16 October, Will broke his silence on his wife’s comments during an interview with the New York Times. The outlet noted that he said his partner’s memoir “kind of woke him up” and that he has now realised she is more “resilient, clever and compassionate than he’d understood”.
“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,” Will added.
