Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals She and Will Smith Have Been Living Separate Lives Since 2016

There have always been rumors about the couple's decades-long marriage, but Jada Pinkett Smith is finally setting the record straight: she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016. And what's more, they don't plan on divorcing anytime soon.

Coinciding with the release of her upcoming memoir, Worthy, the 52-year-old sat down with NBC's Hoda Kotb in her hometown of Baltimore for a primetime special to air on Friday, Oct. 13, at 8 p.m. In both the book and the special, Pinkett Smith attempts to explain why one of Hollywood's most enduring couples kept their separation under the radar for seven years.

"I think, just not being ready yet," she told Kotb in a clip released on Wednesday. "Still trying to figure out between the two of us, how to be in partnership.... And, in regards to, how do we present that to people, you know? And we hadn't figured that out."

Yet, they've kept up the public appearance of a happy marriage, even through scandals like the 2022 Oscars incident, in which Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock for making a joke about Pinkett Smith's alopecia. They also weathered the storm amid rumors that the Girls Trip star had an affair with singer August Alsina while the couple were briefly separated. In reality, they never got back together.

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But when asked what the catalyst for the end of their marriage was, Pinkett Smith didn't necessarily have a clear cut answer.

“Why it fractured. That—that’s a lot of things," she explained. "And I think, by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be."

She noted that while she's considered a legal divorce, she's never been able to go through with it. "I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce," Pinkett Smith added. "We will work through ... whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise."

When asked to clarify their situation, Pinkett Smith stressed: "We live separately."

You can watch the clip, below: