In an emotional and candid interview with Hoda Kotb on NBC News, Jada Pinkett Smith, the renowned actress and wife of Hollywood superstar Will Smith, has divulged that she and her husband have been living separate lives since 2016.
Their marriage, which has faced its fair share of ups and downs, now appears at a crossroads, as Jada bares her heart to the world.
The confession came as a shocking revelation to fans and followers, who had long considered the couple a solid and enduring pair in the turbulent world of celebrity marriages.
Jada Pinkett Smith openly discussed the state of her marriage with Hoda Kotb, explaining that the couple made a pivotal decision seven years ago to “live completely separate lives” as they had become “too exhausted with trying” to make their relationship work.
While the separation was not formalized in legal terms, Jada emphasized that, for all intents and purposes, it was a form of divorce, and they have been apart ever since.
She said that she and Will Smith didn’t make their divorce public because they weren’t “ready yet” at the time.
During the interview, she revealed her contemplation of a “legal divorce” but expressed her inability to go through with it due to a promise she had made to her husband, Will, to always “work through” their marital issues.
In her own words, “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. That we will work through whatever, and I just have not been able to break that promise. We live separately.”
Jada Pinkett Smith delved into the complexities of their relationship, stating, “Why our relationship fractured that is a lot of things, and by the time we got to 2016, we were too exhausted with trying.” She admitted that they both held onto unrealistic expectations of each other and the relationship, which ultimately strained their union.
“I think we were both still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be. I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. That we will work through whatever and I just have not been able to break that promise. We live separately,” Jada said.
In a subsequent interview with People, Jada disclosed that she and Will have been “still figuring out” the status of their marriage and have been separated for six years before the Oscars in 2022.
She emphasized their commitment to finding a path forward, saying, “We are still figuring it out. We have been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got a deep love for each other, and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
Jada and Will Smith, who tied the knot in 1997, share two children and have experienced their fair share of tumultuous moments in the public eye. Notably, in 2020, their marriage made headlines due to reports of Jada’s involvement with US rapper August Alsina.
Furthermore, they were the talk of the town in March 2022 after Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock during the Academy Awards ceremony, an incident that left the world stunned.
As the world waits with bated breath to see how this iconic Hollywood couple navigates this new chapter in their relationship, one thing remains clear – the journey ahead promises to be as captivating and emotionally charged as the movies that have endeared both Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith to audiences worldwide.
