Jada Pinkett Smith says she and Will Smith are ‘staying together forever’ after 2016 separation
Divorce will never be an option for Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith. That’s according to the attention-grabbing actress, who recently broke the internet with her bombshell memoir and revelation that the Hollywood power couple have been separated since 2016.
“We’re staying together forever,” she said on Tuesday’s episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show” after the host broached the topic in a prerecorded interview.
“I tried. We tried,” the “Red Table Talk” ringmaster confided about the pair staying together despite their then-private split.
While promoting her bestselling autobiography “Worthy” on the “TODAY” show in October, Pinkett Smith revealed to host Hoda Kotb that she and the “King Richard” actor have been living “separate lives” for the past seven years, though they’ve never legally divorced.
The Emmy Award winner later clarified that they’re “working very hard” to heal their relationship, which involved a very public extramarital affair with singer August Alsina.
“Here’s the thing about husband-wife marriage for me, for my healing process,” Pinkett Smith began. “I came into that with very specific ideas that were blocks to me seeing Will as who he is. He can’t be this perfect, ideal husband. I have to be able to accept him for the human that he is, (and) he accepts me for the human that I am. And we want to love each other there.”
During another interview promoting the book, she shared that witnessing the infamous “slap heard ’round the world” — when her husband physically assaulted Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards — actually helped restore their relationship.
“Being there with him that night, what I did know was that I might not have walked in there as his wife, but I left that night as his wife,” she said in an interview with CBS Mornings. “And as I sit here today, I am going to be by his side, always.”
The couple, who wed in 1997, are the parents of recording artists and actors Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22.
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