Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith have been leading separate lives for quite some time. During a candid interview on the Today show, the 52-year-old actress shared with Hoda Kotb that she and her 55-year-old husband Will have been apart for seven years.
Jada clarified during a preview of the Wednesday interview that it wasn’t an official divorce, as Kotb had described it, but rather, by 2016, they had simply grown weary of trying to make their marriage work.
“I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she told the television journalist.
When Hoda Kotb, aged 59, inquired about their decision not to discuss their separation earlier, Jada explained that they simply weren’t prepared to do so. She further mentioned that she and the Oscar-winning actor, whom she married on New Year’s Eve in 1997, were still in the process of figuring out how to be partners together.
“In regards to, how do we present that to people? We hadn’t figured that out,” she said.
The Set It Off actress also said she
“made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” explaining, “We will work through … whatever.”
“I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she added.
Jada and Will share two children, a 25-year-old son named Jaden and a 22-year-old daughter named Willow. The actor from “Emancipation” also has a 30-year-old son, Trey, from his previous marriage to Sheree Zampino.
In her latest book, Jada recounts the incident at the 2022 Academy Awards when Will confronted Chris Rock, aged 58, on stage after the comedian made a jest about her shaved head.
UK, Ireland to Host 2028 European Championship
“We had been living separate lives and were there as family, not as husband and wife. But when I hear Will yell “wife” in the chaos of the moment, an internal shift of Oh s— . . . I am his wife! happens instantly,” she writes.
Jada goes on to recall feeling like her teenage self in that moment, “back in a club back in Baltimore, a fight has broken out, and s— could start popp’n.”
“I’m aware that I’m at the Oscars in a beautiful but very heavy forest-green dress with a high neck, a zipper bodice, and a train a thousand miles long, and I’ve had to stay seated all evening,” she writes. “But no matter how much growth I’ve recently experienced, my old mechanisms are driving, and my mind is racing with, Oh s—, if I have to fight or run, I’m done! I can’t even get up!”
Coldplay Counter-Sues Former Manager Amid Legal Battle
She adds in the book,
“But no matter what, Will and I are in this together.”
The wedding of Will and Jada has always piqued the interest of fans. As soon as they tied the knot, they were hailed as Hollywood royalty, leading to a surge of gossip and conjecture.
“We’re still figuring it out,” Jada tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue about the state of their marriage, confirming they had been separated for six years before the Oscars in 2022. “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
As for her kids,
“My children, they’re little gurus,” the actress says. “They’ve taught me a deep sense of self-acceptance.”
“They love every part of me,” she adds of Jaden, Willow and Trey. “The level of love, unconditional love that they have for me and their dad. And it’s one thing to want to be the person that gives that unconditional love. And then there’s, to be the recipient of that.”
You can find “Worthy” at book retailers starting Tuesday, and it’s currently available for pre-order on amazon.com.
