Jada Pinkett Smith has disclosed that she and her husband Will Smith have been leading "completely separate lives" since 2016.
In a snippet from her upcoming NBC News prime-time special with Hoda Kotb, Pinkett Smith mentioned that the couple hadn't made their separation public earlier because they weren't "ready yet."
She stated that they were still trying to figure out "how to be partners," she told Kotb. "How do we present this to people? We hadn't figured that part out."
At 52, Pinkett Smith and 55-year-old Smith have been married since 1997. Pinkett Smith mentioned they are not legally divorced.
Their marriage has been under scrutiny during the period she claims they've been separated.
In July 2020, singer August Alsina revealed he had a romantic relationship with Pinkett Smith, a fact confirmed during an episode with her husband on "Red Table Talk."
"I got into an entanglement with August," Pinkett Smith stated at that time, explaining that the superstar couple was "going through a very difficult time" when it happened.
Then came the Oscar slap.
During the 2022 Academy Awards, Smith stormed the stage and slapped host Chris Rock after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith's baldness. She suffers from alopecia, which has led to hair loss.
In a new interview with People, Pinkett Smith talked about the incident, which, like many others, she initially thought was a comedic exchange between the two men.
"I thought, 'This is a bit.' I thought, 'There's no way that Will just smacked him,'" she recalled. "It wasn't until Will started walking back to his seat that I realized it wasn't a bit."
She told the publication that as soon as they were alone, she asked Smith, "Are you okay?"
During her interview with Kotb, Pinkett Smith revealed that the marriage fractured due to "many things."
"I think by the time we got to 2016, we were both exhausted from it," Pinkett Smith said. "I think we were both still trying to figure out what the other person should be," she added.
She stated that she "made a promise" that there would never be a reason for her and Smith to divorce "and I just haven't been able to break that promise," she said.
Pinkett Smith delves deeper into her marriage, career, and early years in her upcoming memoir, "Worthy." The book is set to be released on October 17th.
