It’s time to untangle everything you think you know about Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s 26-year marriage. In an exclusive clip from her NBC News prime-time special with Hoda Kotb to discuss revelations from her upcoming memoir, Worthy, Jada confirmed that she and Will have been separated since 2016. They live “completely separate lives.†Though they didn’t divorce on paper, it was a divorce in practice, she told Kotb. The pair committed to the bit because they were “just not ready yet … Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership … In regards to, how do we present that to people? We hadn’t figured that out.†Apparently, the separation came about for a number of reasons. “Why it fractured … that’s a lot of things. By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,†she said. “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through … whatever. I just haven’t been able to break that promise.†They married in 1997.
The news might come as a shock to everyone that’s been all up in the couple’s business for the past few years. It really seemed like they were together during the August Alsina entanglement of 2020 and the subsequent Slap heard around the world at the 2022 Oscars, where Will famously told Chris Rock to “get my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth,†before smacking the comedian across the face for making a joke about Jada’s alopecia … Wife? What about Will’s award-winning performance on Red Table Talk that launched a million Will crying memes? There will be much to reconsider in the coming days as we wade through this latest bombshell from one of Hollywood’s most powerful couples, including discourse from the anti-Jada misogynist hate train that blames her for stuff that happens in their now-former relationship. Yet another couple has fallen in this year of celebrity disentanglements. Maybe this means we won’t be forced to hear details about their relationship unprovoked anymore?