As Jada Pinkett Smith confirms that she and husband Will Smith have been separated for seven years, the couple’s past comments about divorce have resurfaced.
On 11 October, the Girls Trip star revealed that she and Will were separated for six years at the time of the infamous Oscars slap in March 2022. Speaking to People, Jada explained that she and Will are “still figuring it out” when it comes to their marriage of 26 years.
“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 for us.”
Will, 55, and Jada, 52, were married in 1997 and share two children: son Jaden, 25, and daughter Willow, 22. The King Richard actor is also a father to son Trey, 30, who he shares with ex-wife Sheree Zampino.
The Hollywood couple have spoken candidly about their relationship over the years, amid rumours of infidelity and claims they have an open marriage. However, Will has often maintained that “divorce is not an option” for him and Jada.
Back in 2006, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star first explained to MTV News that divorce wasn’t in the cards for his relationship with Jada. “Divorce can’t be an option. With Jada, I stood up in front of God and said: ‘Til death do us part,’” he said at the time. “So there are two possible outcomes. One, we are going to be together ‘til death, or two, I am dead.”
The actor echoed his sentiment just two years later during an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres Show. “What I found is divorce just can’t be an option,” Will told Degeneres in 2008. “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.”
Meanwhile, Jada has expressed similar thoughts about her long-term relationship with Will, and their unwillingness to consider getting a divorce. During a 2018 episode of her Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk, Jada recalled the hard conversation she had with Will before tying the knot in 1997.
“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.”
Trey Smith, Jaden Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Will Smith in October 2016— (Getty Images)
While the pair have remained committed to staying married, it hasn’t stopped speculation surrounding their marriage. In fact, both Jada and Will have admitted to having past “entanglements” with other partners and to having a non-traditional marriage.
During a 2018 appearance on Red Table Talk, Will revealed that the couple almost broke up in 2011 after an incident at Jada’s 40th birthday party. The actor arranged for Mary J Blige to perform at her birthday and he put together a documentary about Jada’s life. However, his wife believed that the birthday party was “the most disgusting display of ego I have ever seen in my life”.
“We essentially had to destroy our marriage divorce,” Will told Red Table Talk co-hosts Jada, Willow, and Jada’s mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris. “Because I had been divorced before, I wasn’t getting divorced again. Divorce wasn’t an option.”
He further detailed the incident in his 2021 memoir, Will, writing: “Our marriage wasn’t working. We could no longer pretend. We were both miserable and clearly something had to change.” Also in his self-titled memoir, the actor wrote that he and Jada were “suffering the brutal death of our romantic fantasies, the burning away of the idealistic illusion of the perfect marriage and the perfect family”.
“Neither of us wanted a divorce; we knew we loved each other, and some aspects of our union were magical. But the structure of the life that we had established was strangling both of us,” he said.
Things took a turn in 2020 when singer August Alsina claimed that he and Jada dated while she and Will had an open marriage. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, Alsina claimed that Will had given them his “blessing” and approved of their relationship, after his marriage to Jada “transformed” into what he described as a non-romantic “life partnership”.
“I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership that they’ve spoken on several times and it not involving romanticism,” he said. The pair were reportedly introduced in 2015 by Jada’s son, Jaden. Alsina added he “totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life and I truly and really, really deeply loved and have a ton of love for her”.
The same day Alsina’s claims surfaced, a representative for Jada said they were “absolutely not true”.
August Alsina and Jada Pinkett Smith at the 2017 BET Awards on 25 June 2017— (Getty Images for BET)
But less than two weeks later, Jada and Will appeared on an episode of Red Table Talk where she confirmed that she did have a relationship with Alsina, saying that she and Will were separated at the time. “We decided that we were going to separate for a period of time and you go figure out how to make yourself happy and I’ll figure out how to make myself happy,” Jada said.
“From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August... Yes, it was a relationship absolutely,” she explained. However, Jada denied Alsina’s account that her husband gave them “permission” to pursue a relationship, as she said: “The only person who could give permission in that particular circumstance was myself.”
One year later, the I Am Legend star shared further detail about his unconventional relationship with Jada. In a cover story with GQ published in 2021, Will explained that “marriage for us can’t be a prison” and how giving each other unconditional support was the “highest definition of love”.
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage… Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship. So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up,” Smith told the outlet. “There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.
“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. And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
Nearly two weeks before the 2022 Oscars and the infamous Oscars slap, Will discussed some of the rumours surrounding his relationship with Jada in an interview with Gayle King for CBS Mornings.
“There’s never been infidelity in our marriage,” he said. “Jada and I talk about everything, and we have never surprised one another with anything, ever.”
