The two actors have repeatedly brushed aside reports of marital strife — until now.
As she gears up to release a new book, Jada Pinkett Smith isn’t holding back about the state of her relationship with husband Will Smith.
In an excerpt of an interview with NBC’s Hoda Kotb set to air Friday, Pinkett Smith said she and Smith have been separated since 2016, despite maintaining the appearance of a committed couple.
“By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” she explained. “I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
Though Pinkett Smith said that she and Smith “live separately,” she clarified that they are not legally divorced ― and hinted that may not be the case forever.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she told Kotb. “We will work through … whatever. I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
Catch a clip from Jada Pinkett Smith’s NBC interview below.
Pinkett Smith is said to delve further into the separation in her memoir, “Worthy,” due out next week.
She and Smith have been married since 1997. The couple share two children: Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22. Smith also has a 30-year-old son, Trey, from his previous marriage to Sheree Zampino.
As is the case for many A-list Hollywood couplings, Smith and Pinkett Smith’s marriage has had its share of public ups and downs, and the two actors’ private lives continue to be the source of intense speculation.
And, of course, there was the global media frenzy that erupted at the Academy Awards last year when Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock for cracking a joke at Pinkett Smith’s expense.
Still, the couple have brushed aside reports of martial strife on repeated occasions.
Appearing on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” in 2017 ― a year after she and Smith separated ― Pinkett Smith said she and the “Men in Black” actor were continuing to “have a good time together” as they approached their 20th wedding anniversary.
“Will and I just have amazing chemistry on a lot of different levels,” she told host Andy Cohen at the time. “We love to laugh together, we love to learn together and we just love each other.”
When it comes to their marriage these days, Pinkett Smith said she and Smith are “still figuring it out.”
“We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,” she told People in an interview published Wednesday. “We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
“I’m going to be by his side,” she added, “but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.”
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