Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have been separated for seven years, the actress reveals in new interview

One of Hollywood’s glittering couples has been separated for seven years, as Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in an interview with People magazine before a sit-down interview with NBC News this morning. The revelation also brought up that the pair had been separated for six years when Will Smith won his Best Actor award for his role in ‘King Richard,’ and the subsequent slap heard around the world.  The interview was in order to promote Pinkett Smith's forthcoming book, 'Worthy,' set for release in bookstores on October 17 2023.

Pinkett Smith told NBC host Hoda Kotb on the Today Show “By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” as she broke into tears after discussing the breakdown of her marriage.

She noted that no permanent decisions have been made about the future of her marriage, explaining that she and Will are “still figuring it out'. 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.”

Rumours regarding the state of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s marriage first surfaced when the actress revealed that she had an ‘entanglement’ with her son’s friend, August Alsina, for four years back in 2020, leading to claims that the pair had an open relationship - something that at the time the pair denied.

It would be during an episode of Pinkett Smith’s ‘Red Table Talk’ when the admission of the four-year relationship became more public, with many fans of Will Smith contending that it could be perceived as a form of public humiliation for the actor rather than a form of catharsis for both.

That slap on Chris Rock at the Oscars came shortly after the revelations, and now in hindsight could be seen as Smith’s last attempt at defending the honour of his wife, whom he married in December 1997. Pinkett Smith revealed during her interviews that she thought the slap was a sketch during the show, until Smith returned to his chair, leading the actress to ask if he was okay when they had a moment alone with each other.

Allegations Chris Rock 'asked out' Jada Pinkett Smith

Later in the interview, Jada Pinkett Smith discussed a moment when Chris Rock had called her up to ask her out on a date, amid the rumours that she and Will Smith were divorcing. “Every summer all the reports would come out that me and Will were getting a divorce,” Pinkett Smith told People magazine. “And this particular summer, Chris [Rock], he thought that we were getting a divorce. So he called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’”

Pinkett Smith said she was taken aback by the call. “I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumours,’” Pinket Smith recalled. “He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”