Jada Pinkett Smith denies affair with August Alsina: 'Absolutely not true!!'
Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith continue to fight rumors they are in an open marriage.
Singer August Alsina, 27, claims in a new interview with The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee that he did in fact have a romantic relationship with the 48-year-old Red Table Talk host — and Will knew about it. Jada’s rep is denying Alsina’s claim.
“I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership, that they have spoken on several times, not involving romanticism,” Alsina said (starting at the 16:45 mark). “He actually gave me his blessing.”
Alsina met Jada in 2015 through her son, Jaden Smith. He became close with the family, vacationing with them in Hawaii a year later and attending the BET Awards with the fam two years later.
Alsina insists it was more, though, saying, “I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really deeply love and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to [the relationship], I gave my full self to it — so much so to the point that I can die right now and be okay with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody. And I really loved a person. I experienced that and I know what that feels like — and some people never get that in this lifetime. So I know that I am completely blessed.”
He continued, “And this conversation is difficult because it is so much, that it would be hard for people to understand but once it starts to affect me and my livelihood, I have to speak up about my truth.”
Asked if it was “disappointing” that Jada never publicly acknowledged the long-running rumors of a romance, he said, “I really can’t even get into the thought of that because I am only responsible for myself, right? And I am only responsible for what I do. When I am repressing and suppressing things and it starts to affect me. I have to address it. I just always stay solid because I never want to be the person to start confusion.”
Alsina insisted during the interview he is “not a troublemaker” and doesn’t “like drama. Drama actually makes me nauseous.” And he has deep “love” for the Smith clan, whom he considers “literally like my family. I don’t have a bad thing to say about them. They are beautiful people.”
However, Alsina, who is the subject of a new documentary called The Rise of August Alsina, said, “I have lost money, friendships, relationships” because of the rumors about himself and Jada, and “I think it is because people don’t necessarily know the truth. But I have never done anything wrong.”
And while his stance has been that it’s not “important for people to know ... who I sleep with, who I date ... in this instance it is very different because ... there are so many people that are side-eyeing me, looking at me questionable.”
Jada’s rep told Page Six Alsina’s claim of an affair between them is “absolutely not true!!”
Since at least 2013 there have been rumors that Will and Jada are in an open marriage, spurred on by their own comments, like her remark that year that Will can “do whatever [he] want[s] as long as [he] can look at [himself] in the mirror and be OK.” They’ve continued to hold the public’s interest with their declaration that they stopped referring to themselves as married, preferring “life partners.” (The couple, married since 1997, has also been plagued by divorce rumors.)
Rumors about Jada and August first cropped up in 2016 during that Smith family vacation. In 2018, he appeared on Red Table Talk, saying Jada helped him with his addiction, but did not suggest it was anything other than platonic.
Months later though, he posted a gushing birthday tribute to Jada, calling her “a little piece of heaven here on Earth” and “an example of God’s divinity.” So when he released his track “Nunya” the following year, singing about an “actress,” it lead to speculation it was about Jada. And months after that, he joked that Will “whooped” him over the affair rumors.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
