Jada Pinkett Smith’s latest revelation on her marriage to Will Smith now sheds latest light on one in all her juiciest past interviews.
On Wednesday, the actress, 52, revealed that she and Smith, 55, had been secretly separated for six years on the time of Smith’s infamous 2022 Oscars slap – wherein he smacked Chris Rock on live TV, for making a joke about Jada’s hair.
The audio was cut and censored for several seconds as Smith returned to his seat. But captions and lipreading by viewers revealed his message to Rock: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth.”
But now, Jada has revealed that she was only “his wife” on paper, they usually were living separate lives since 2016.
This latest information makes Jada’s 2017 interview with Andy Cohen stand out – since, looking back, she and Will had already been secretly separated for a yr.
In the course of the interview, Jada is asked in regards to the “craziest rumors” she’s heard about herself and Will, including the rumor that they’re swingers. “That’s the craziest one! It’s constant,” she said. “I’m like, yo, I wish!”
When Cohen asked if Jada has suggestions for keeping a romance hot after 23 years together, Jada gave an extended pause, looking uncomfortable, before saying, “I don’t know! I mean, I’m baffled, really,” she stammered, and paused again for a tense-sounding laugh.
“Will and I just have amazing chemistry on numerous different levels. We like to laugh together, we like to learn together, and we just love one another. We just have a very good time together,” she said.
“Yeah, I suppose that’s the key. Yeah, we just really like one another!” she concluded.
The actress spoke about their private life in a clip from an upcoming NBC interview with Hoda Kotb, which aired on Wednesday. The segment will air in full on Oct. 13, which coincides together with her latest book, “Worthy.”
When asked what the explanation was for keeping their separation secret, Jada replied that she and Will were “Still determining between the 2 of us, the right way to be a partnership…with regard to how can we present that to people. We hadn’t figured that out.”
On how the connection fractured, she explained, “That’s numerous things…we were exhausted with trying. We were each stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the opposite person needs to be.”
“It was not a divorce on paper, however it was a divorce,” Kotb said, to which Jada said, “Yeah.”
Will and Jada have been married since 1997 and share kids Jaden, 25, Willow, 22, and Trey, 30. (Will welcomed Trey with ex Sheree Zampino).
“We’ve been performing some really heavy-duty work together,” she told People in an interview published on Wednesday. “We just got deep love for one another and we’re going to work out what that appears like for us.”
“Jada’s Story – An NBC News Special” airs Friday, October 13 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.