Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and her husband, Oscar-winning actor Will Smith, have been living separate lives since 2016 in an NBC News interview, discussing her memoir, Worthy, and discussing one of the biggest relationships in her life.
“It was not a divorce on paper, but it was a divorce,” Kotb said. “Right,” Pinkett Smith affirmed
The duo decided not disclose the true nature of their relationship due to their ongoing struggle to understand how to present it to others.
By 2016, they were exhausted and stuck in their fantasy of what the other person should be. Smith had considered getting legally divorced, but she made a promise that they would work through whatever, and she hasn’t been able to break that promise. The couple’s relationship has been a source of tension and uncertainty for both parties.
“Why it fractured … that—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.”
Willow Smith and Pinkett Smith met at an audition for Smith’s famous sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, in 1994. They married in 1995 and welcomed their first child, Jaden, in 1998. The Smiths have subsequently started their own careers in the entertainment industry, with Jaden working as an actor, rapper, and fashion designer and Willow as a singer and actress.
