Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith — one of Hollywood’s most influential power couples — have been quietly separated since 2016, Jada Pinkett Smith disclosed Wednesday on “Today.”
According to Smith, the couple, who has been married since 1997, realized that their relationship wasn’t going to work seven years ago and began to “live separately.”
“By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” Smith said.
Will Smith alluded to something similar during a recent episode of Kevin Hart’s Peacock talkshow, “Hart to Heart.” In the episode, Smith explained that he originally envisioned for his family to be a Hollywood powerhouse. However, when his children pushed back against his demands for their music and film careers, he let that dream go.
Since then, the two have lived separate lives as they co-parent their kids, Jaden and Willow. Smith has even had what she referred to as an “entanglement” with a family friend, which she disclosed on her podcast, long before her husband’s infamous slap across the face of Oscars host Chris Rock.
Despite all of this, divorce is still not on the table for the power couple.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” Smith said.
The bombshell is one of the draws of Smith’s new memoir, “Worthy.” During the “Today” interview, Smith noted that she kept the secret for so long because they felt like they weren’t yet ready to tell the public and they struggled with “how to present that to people.”
Currently the co-host of Facebook’s “Red Table Talk,” Smith has won a Daytime Emmy Award and was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.
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