August Alsina Felt Jada Pinkett Smith Relationship Reveal Was 'Necessary' to 'Clear the Air'
August Alsina is opening up about his decision to confirm his romance with Jada Pinkett Smith.
In a new interview with New York magazine's Vulture published on Friday, the 27-year-old R&B singer said that while he "never" thinks "it's important to know who I date," he ultimately decided to talk about his relationship with the actress, 48, during a June 30 interview with the Breakfast Club's Angela Yee because the rumors were starting to affect both his professional and personal life.
"This became very complex for me because we're all public figures, and there was a lot of chatter around my name and her name," Alsina said. "I'm pretty expressive. And when I love something or love someone, I express that. Over time, I was expressing my love externally and outwardly, and when you are in a situation, and you super in love, it’s like, f— it. I don't care what anybody thinks. This is just how I feel."
"But once I got to step out of it and step outside of it, there would be people bringing how I looked to my attention," he continued. "People looked at me as this problematic guy who was super reckless, like I'm pushing up on someone's wife. I didn't really like that. I didn't like the sound of that, especially when it wasn't the truth."
Alsina said that because people "didn't have the truth," that it "allowed them to view me and my character a certain type of way."
"That started to really eat at my soul, but deeper than that, it started to f— with my partnerships and business relationships and money because of people seeing me as this reckless guy who's, like, publicly announcing his love and pushing up on somebody's wife, quote, unquote," he said.
That pushed Alsina to feel "the need to speak my truth."
"A lot of those people in partnerships came back around and apologized like, 'Oh, I'm sorry, my bad. I really didn't know,'" he said. "I never talk about my relationships 'cause I don't think it's important. But my livelihood is important, because I have three kids (his late sister Chandra's daughters) to take care of now, and I didn't like how that started to tamper with my life and finances. I felt it necessary to get it out off of my spirit and clear the air."
"I don't like to walk around the elephant [in the room]," he added. "That doesn't feel good. It felt like an elephant sitting on my spirit after a while. It was a difficult decision. I never want to be the one causing a ruckus. I never want to be problematic in any kind of way. But after talking to a few people that I have love for and respect and who've been in this business for some time, and even people outside the business that have been respectful, they also thought that I should free myself in that way. That's all it's about. I’ve never spoken on anything else. I've never given any detail about anything and really don't feel the need to, but this has only been mainly been about my freedom."
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Pinkett Smith — whom Alsina met through her and husband Will Smith's son Jaden, 22, back in 2015 — addressed Alsina's claims herself during an episode of her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk last week, saying that she had a romantic relationship (or, as she called it, an "entanglement") with Alsina while she and Smith, 51, were going through a temporary separation.
When asked if he has watched the Red Table Talk episode — which Pinkett Smith filmed with Smith — about their relationship, Alsina admitted, "I haven't, actually."
"I have people who've seen it," he said. "I saw small clips floating on Instagram and kinda backed off Instagram. But it's definitely been brought to my attention by people around me."
Though he hasn't seen the episode, Alsina does know that Pinkett Smith described their relationship as an "entanglement" — and he agrees.
"I don't know why that word is such an issue," he said. "I would agree [with Jada]. If you look up the definition of 'entanglement,' it is a complex and difficult relationship. It was exactly that. I think it's just the language that probably stuck out to people. But I definitely have to agree with it being an entanglement. It definitely was something complicated, a complicated dynamic."
Alsina also stood by the original comments he made on Yee's show about how Smith gave "his blessing" to have a relationship with his wife, which Pinkett Smith denied on the Red Table Talk episode. "The only person that can give permission in that circumstance is myself," she said.
"I can't speak for anyone else," Alsina said. "What I said in my interview, how I said it, when I said it, is exactly what I said and exactly what I meant. That's all I can really say about that. All I have is my truth, and all I have is my truth to stand on it. I don't have any reason to lie about anything."
Despite everything that has gone down, Alsina said there is no bad blood between him and the Smiths.
"I don't have an issue with anybody," he said. "I love everybody. I love all of them. They've been my family, and there's a lot of history there. They're beautiful people. They're beautiful spirits. They really are."
"After my sister died [of cancer in 2018], I decided to do something different and kind of untangle myself from what I had been tangled up in for so long, because it kept me out of alignment with my true self, so to speak," he continued. "I'm an artist. But because the full truth was never there and the clarity was never there, it kept me from living in my expression. And that made me feel weighted down. That, itself, is another form of oppression and repression and suppression. It started to kind of eat at my life force. That's really what it's about more than anything. But there's no bad blood with anybody."
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When asked whether he has any regrets about getting as deeply involved with Pinkett Smith as he did, Alsina responded, "I don't."
"I think that [relationship] helped me to operate and access my higher self. I don't regret it at all because I know that on this planet, there is not much harmony, and there is not much love, so when you're actually given love, real love that you've never experienced, it is a gift. No matter how complex or hard it may be to face or whatever, that's the gift. I'm aware of that. I'm aware that I was gifted. It's been a blessing to me, even the really hard parts and the tough parts of it."
"There is no right or wrong here," he continued. "With there being no right or wrong, there is no regret. There's nothing to regret because it's not something I went searching for. It's not something I went after. I don't go after people's girls. Nobody preyed on me or was a predator towards me. This is none of that. It just is. It just was. So I don't feel any reason to have regrets. Every lesson man, every, every relationship, every experience is a blessing. You learn from it, whether good or bad. I could never say that I regret being given the gift of experience and love. It's a lesson."
