Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and her husband Will have been living “completely separate lives” since 2016.
The Girls Trip star is currently promoting her new memoir Worthy, and recently paid a visit to The Today Show to talk about the book.
During the interview, Today host Hoda Kotb revealed that, in her book, Jada reveals that she and Will made the decision to “live completely separate lives” seven years ago.
“It was not a divorce on paper, but it was a divorce,” Hoda said, to which Jada responded: “Right. Divorce.”
The host then continued: “So, from the year 2016, which is seven years ago now, you all have been apart?”
Jada then confirmed this was the case, explaining: “I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, right, and in regards to how do we present that to people, you know? And we hadn’t figured that out.”
She went on to say “a lot of things” contributed to the “fracturing” of her relationship with the Oscar winner, recalling: “I think 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.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she added, before once again confirming that she and Will “live separately”.
Despite their apparent private split seven years ago, the pair have remained in one another’s lives, appearing together on Jada’s former Facebook Live show Red Table Talks as well as on numerous red carpets.
Jada was also famously Will’s guest at the 2022 Oscars, where a joke made by comedian Chris Rock about the Matrix Reloaded star’s buzzcut hairstyle prompted the King Richard star to come on stage and slap the comic.
Jada’s Story – An NBC News Special will air in the US on Friday, October 13 at 8 pm ET on NBC.