Wait, what?
While promoting her new memoir, Worthy, Jada Pinkett Smith revealed to Hoda Kotb on Today that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016. She confirmed that she and Will have been living “completely separate lives” and divorced in all but name for seven years, but have been pretending to be more or less happily married for all of that time.
So they weren't together when she and Will had that tearful conversation about their marriage on Red Table Talk. And they weren't together when Will slapped Chris Rock across the face on the Oscars stage over a joke about Jada's shaved head.
“By the time we got to 2016 we were just exhausted with trying,” Jada told Kotb, saying there were “many things” that led to their separation. As for why they kept it a secret, and why they haven't gotten a legal divorce, Jada said, “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.”
Read everything the estranged couple has said about their marriage over the years.
In an October 11 interview with People, Jada Pinkett Smith said of her marriage, “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
Will and Jada wed in 1997, and have two children together: 25-year-old Jaden and 22-year-old Willow.
