Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking her truth.
via: EW
Pinkett Smith has candidly addressed longtime rumors about her marriage to Will Smith.
Though the Girls Trip star did not go into detail, she did respond to questions about the frequent gossip that has circled her relationship during an extensive interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb for an NBC News prime-time special that aired Friday night.
“You and Will probably have more rumors about you and talk about you than others,” Kotb said as Pinkett Smith laughed.
Kotb continued, “‘They’re in an open marriage, they’re swingers, he’s gay, she’s gay.’ I mean a million things were out there. What, if anything, is true and did hearing all that stuff bother you?”
“No,” Pinkett Smith replied. “You know, that’s part of it. I would say that none of that’s true. I definitely can understand why there’d be misunderstandings, but none of it’s true.”
Earlier this week, a teaser clip from Kotb’s interview with Pinkett Smith went viral for its news that she and Will Smith have been quietly separated for seven years.
“Why it fractured? That’s a lot of things, and I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” Pinkett Smith told Kotb. “I think we were both stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
Numerous revelations about the couple have surfaced in recent years. Pinkett Smith said in a 2020 episode of her Red Table Talk show that she and recording artist August Alsina had an “entanglement” during her marriage. Later, in a 2021 GQ profile, Will Smith confirmed that though monogamy was a route they “chose” for a large part of their relationship, it remained an ongoing discussion.
“Marriage for us can’t be a prison,” he said. “And I don’t suggest our road for anybody… But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
During her conversation with Kotb, Pinkett Smith — who will release her new memoir, Worthy, on Oct. 17 — confirmed that the couple have no plans to officially end their marriage. “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she said early in the interview.
The host later returned to the subject, asking, “Here’s just a straightforward question: Why not just amicably divorce?”
“We don’t want to,” Pinkett Smith replied. “We love our family. And we love each other. It’s more of a life partnership. Now, 10 years from now, Hoda, who knows?”
She added, “Right now, what we’re focused on, which has been so beautiful, is deep healing. Because of everything that’s transpired. What happens after that, I don’t know yet.”
