Jada Pinkett Smith confirms she’s been separated from Will Smith since 2016

Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed she’s been separated from husband Will Smith since 2016.

The Gotham actress, who has been married to Will since 1997, opened up about the status of her marriage in a new interview with People, where she admitted she's not sure where they stand.

"We’re still figuring it out," she said. "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.”

In a separate interview with NBC News' Hoda Kotb airing this Friday, Jada suggested that she and Will have been living "completely separate lives" for the past seven years.

Asked why they haven't divorced, Jada explained: "I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in [a] partnership, right, and in regards to ‘how do we present that to people,’ you know? And we hadn’t figured that out.

"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… 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."

The revelation is particularly surprising since Jada supported Will through his awards campaign for King Richard, and was a central figure in her husband's on-stage confrontation with Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022.

In a now notorious live TV moment, Will walked onto the stage after Rock had made a joke at Jada's expense and slapped the comedian across the face.

Will has since publicly apologised for the incident, but he was still suspended by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and cannot attend the Oscars for ten years.

Several months after the incident, Smith posted a video apologising to Rock by admitting his "behaviour was unacceptable".

"I've reached out to Chris and the message that came back is he's not ready to talk. And when he is, he will reach out," he said.

Prior to this incident, Jada acknowledged in a joint interview with Will that she'd dated another man during a secret separation years earlier.

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