Jada Pinkett Smith addresses rumours she cheated on husband Will Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith separated in 2016

Brittany Miller
New York
Monday 16 October 2023 15:59 BST
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Related: Jada Pinkett Smith confirms relationship with August Alsina

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Jada Pinkett Smith has continued to open up about her marriage to Will Smith following the announcement that they’ve been separated for the last seven years.

On Saturday 14 October, Jada and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, spoke withTalkShopLive about the misconceptions people have about her relationship with Will - including the 2020 Red Table Talk episode in which she and Will discussed Jada’s “entanglement” with singer August Alsina.

“I just need people to know, OK, I did not cheat on Will Smith. No matter how sad he looked at that table,” Jada said. “And when you read this book, you will kind of get an understanding of why the Red Table even happened in the first place,” she added, referring to her recently published memoir, Worthy.

During the Red Table Talk episode, Jada explained that she and Will “were going to separate for a period of time.” However, the couple had actually been separated for four years at that point.

Despite their long separation, Jada said she was happy with where she was at in her life, especially now that her memoir is finished.

“I’m in a place of peace. I’m in a place of happiness. And in all honesty, I love where I am,” she shared. “As far as Will, my relationship with him, you know, we went through that long period of separation... in order for us to journey separately and do some journeying together. And it just seems as though we’ve come to a really, really beautiful place together. So I just, I’m happy. Yeah, that’s where I am. In this chapter of my life, I am finally happy.”

Her mother then chimed in by saying that Will and Jada take their public perception very seriously, which pressured them into staying together but creating additional strain on their relationship. “People had this vision in their mind and this idea in their minds of who you were as a couple, the family and all of that, and you guys just tried to live up to it,” Norris said.

Jada responded: “Well, we thought that’s what we were supposed to do until we got mature and got our a**es in some therapy, and realised, you know, that that’s just not a realistic thing to do. There’s so much love, you know, between us.”

“Somebody asked if there’s an opportunity of Will and I to get back together,” she continued. “And, you know, Will and I are, we’re family, and I know that what we’ve talked about with the Today show was this big separation - and we had been separated, and you guys didn’t know it, because we didn’t feel like it was something to share, because we were trying to figure out what that meant.”

“Then, different things have transpired over the last two years and Will and I have been doing a lot of healing together,” Jada shared. “And, you know, we have made our way back to this interdependence, this beautiful loving space between us. And we’re family. And we’re figuring it out. And it’s a beautiful figuring it out. Been beautiful. Got a lot of love.”

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