Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals Being Secretly Separated From Will Smith For 7 Years Now & Thought Oscars’ Chris Rock Slap Was A Skit, “I Was Like, There’s No Way…”
Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed she and her husband Will Smith have been separated since 2016 but they were not "ready" to tell people. Read on!
Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals She & Will Smith Have Been Secretly Separated For Seven Years Now But Do Not Plan To Get A Formal Divorce, Adds She Thought Oscars Slap Was A Skit ( Photo Credit – Instagram / Wikimedia)
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Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and her husband Will Smith have been separated for seven years now. The Red Table Talk host recently shared that she and Smith have been living “completely separate lives” since 2016. As for the reason why they kept things quiet all this while, Pinkett Smith said the couple had not previously gone public with their separation because they were “still trying to figure things out”.
In a clip from her upcoming NBC News primetime special with Hoda Kotb, Jada revealed that despite the separation, she does not plan to file for a formal divorce from her husband. The Girls Trip star said she made a promise that there would be no reason for her to get a divorce from the The Pursuit of Happyness star, and added, “We will work through whatever, and I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
Talking about why they decided to part ways despite often being hailed as a power couple, Jada said, “I think by the time we got to 2016, we we both just exhausted with trying,” – before adding, “I think we were both kind of still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
Shedding light on where their relationship currently stands, Jada Pinkett Smith told People, “We’re still figuring it out. We’ve 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 Pinkett Smith, who is currently preparing for the release of her memoir, Worthy, also opened up about the infamous Chris Rock–Will Smith slapping incident that took place at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022. For the unversed, during the presentation of the Best Documentary Feature Prize, Will Smith walked onstage and assaulted comedian Chris Rock across the face with an open-palm strike, leaving everyone in the audience shocked. His slap came after a joke Rock made about Jada’s shaved head – who suffers from a medical condition called alopecia aerate which can cause baldness. “I thought, ‘This is a skit. I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him.’ It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit,” she said.
She also revealed that she asked her husband Will Smith when they were alone post the slapgate if he was okay and suggested he still has his own journey to discover. “I’m going to be by his side,” she said, adding, “but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.”
Notably, Will resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and apologized to Chris, calling the slap “unacceptable” while also clarifying Jada had nothing to do with his actions. He was subsequently banned from the Oscars for 10 years.
Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith tied the knot in 1997 following his divorce from Sheree Zampino, with whom he shares his 30-year-old son Trey Smith. Jada and Will share two kids, Jaden Smith, 25, and Willow Smith, 22, together.
