Will Smith: marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith is ‘sloppy public experiment in unconditional love’

Will Smith has made an emotional speech in support of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith at a promotional event for her new memoir Worthy, describing their marriage as “a sloppy public experiment in unconditional love”.

In remarks reported by the Baltimore Sun, Smith said: “I just really wanted to come out and just be here and hold it down for you the way you have held it down for me … We have had a very, very long and tumultuous [relationship]. We call it ‘brutiful’… brutal and beautiful at the same time.”

Smith added: “Our union is a sloppy public experiment. It is a sloppy public experiment in unconditional love … As I stand here before you today, I am happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life … I have achieved every single thing I have ever wanted in my entire life.”

Smith was speaking at an event at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Library for Worthy, Pinkett Smith’s memoir in which she revealed that the couple, who married in 1997, have been living separate lives since 2016. Smith’s infamous “slap” at the 2022 Oscar ceremony was apparently triggered by Smith taking exception at a joke by host Chris Rock at Pinkett Smith’s expense, after which he shouted: “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”

Since Pinkett Smith’s revelations about their relationship, an email from Smith was quoted in a New York Times interview with Pinkett Smith, in which he reportedly said that the memoir “woke him up” and that “when you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.” Smith subsequently posted a joke “official statement” on social media, featuring the actor sneezing.