Jada Pinkett Smith says she and husband Will Smith may split in 10 years after revealing they have been living ‘completely separate lives’ since 2016.
The high-profile Hollywood couple married in 1997 and have addressed breakups and marital problems in the past, but Pinkett Smith revealed in an interview with Hoda Kotb on Friday night how the couple essentially has a divorce without papers.
Smith (55) and Pinkett Smith (52) share two children, Willow and Jaden, as well as a son, Trey, from Smith’s first marriage.
‘Why not just divorce amicably? Why not just do it’, Kotb asked.
“We don’t want to,” Kotb replied.
‘We love our family, and we love each other. You know, it’s more of a life partnership. Now, ten years from now, who knows?’ Pinkett Smith said.
Kotb pressed further, asking if the pair had an agreement should each decide to date someone else — but such a suggestion was quickly brushed aside.
‘Well, you know, at the moment we’re focused on, what’s been so beautiful is deep healing – bbecause of everything that happened. Now, what happens after that, I don’t know yet,” Pinkett Smith explained.
“Is it possible that there would be a full reconciliation?” Kotb asked.
“You know, he’s getting old. You know what I’m saying he’s getting old who’s going to be there for him, Hoda it’s going to be me. It’s gonna be me. I’ll be there,’ Pinkett Smith said, suggesting the couple would never part ways completely.
News of the couple’s split came as a surprise to many, considering Pinkett Smith’s candor on her Red Table Talk series, in which she and Smith addressed her extramarital affair in a 2020 episode, and the slap at the 2022 Academy Awards.
At the ceremony, Smith infamously walked on stage and hit host Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s hair.
In the days leading up to the release of her memoir Worthy, Jada Pinkett Smith told Hoda Kotb for the first time that she and husband Will Smith had been separated since 2016.
Jada and Will at the Oscars in 2022 with their children Jaden and Willow, as well as Will’s son Trey (30), photographed by his first wife, Sheree Zampino
Will Slams Comedian Chris Rock At 2022 Oscars After Joking About Jada’s Bald Head
Smith has apologized multiple times for the incident, which earned him a 10-year ban from attending the Oscars or any other academy event.
And then no one in the public knew that the highly publicized couple had been living separately since 2016.
Since then, she and Smith have made many public statements of their love and admiration for each other, suggesting that their split was amicable.
She told Kotb: “By the time we got to 2016, we were just tired of trying. I think we were both quite stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.’
She wrote in her book: ‘It wasn’t a divorce on paper. But it was a divorce.’
Pinkett Smith, who in 2020 admitted to having an affair with singer August Alsina, said she considered a legal divorce but was never able to go through with it, and openly revealed that she made a ‘promise’ to made her husband what she would never give. him a ‘reason’ to divorce.
‘I made a promise that there would never be a reason for us to divorce. We’ll work through… whatever,’ she said.
Pinkett Smith also revealed how Smith hit on her in 1994 while he was still married to his first wife Sheree Zampino, seen left, holding their son Trey Smith.
The Hollywood couple, who married in 1997, have dealt with separations and marital problems and now essentially have an informal divorce. Taken in November 2022
Will and Jada – who were seen at the 2022 Academy Awards – split when actor Chris slapped at the Oscars
“We’ll work through whatever and I just couldn’t break that promise.”
“But you still live apart?” Kotb probed and asked her to confirm: ‘We live separately’.
Jada’s new memoir is titled ‘Worthy’
During the hour-long interview, Pinkett Smith also revealed how Smith hit on her in 1994 while he was still married to his first wife, Sheree Zampino.
The two struck up a friendship, but Pinkett Smith’s mother did not approve.
‘He called me when I was with my mother in Baltimore. She was like, “Listen, tell him — you all hang up the phone. You don’t need to talk to no married man.” And I was like, “She’s right.” And so I was like, “Sal, I’m so sorry, but my mom says please don’t call me anymore. And so we didn’t talk again for another whole year.”
By 1995, Smith was going through a divorce and wasted no time reaching out to Pinkett Smith again.
‘He called me and he was like, “Where are you?” And I was like, “I’m in Baltimore,” she recalled.
“He was like, “Are you coming back to LA?” And I was like, “Yeah. He was like, “Do you see anybody? And I was like, “No. And he said, “Okay, because you see me now. And I was like, ‘What?!’
‘Just straight, you know. I kind of liked it,” Pinkett Smith said.