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Inside Will and Jada’s ‘open’ marriage

A look back at Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith rocky romance through the years to see how it all went wrong for the power couple.
After Will’s divorce from Sheree Zampino, he and Jada became an item. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images

After Will’s divorce from Sheree Zampino, he and Jada became an item. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have had a rocky romance through the years.

The pair, who started dating in 1995 and have two children together, haven’t shied away from sharing their struggles with fans, from “entanglements” with outside lovers to secret separations, reports Page Six.

However, the duo often open up about their relationship wins as well.

While celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary in 2017, Will compared love to gardening in a touching Instagram post.
 

Jada Pinkett Smith dropped a bombshell that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016.
Jada Pinkett Smith dropped a bombshell that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016.


“I have learned to focus on HELPING you to BLOSSOM into what YOU want to be (into what you were born to be) … Rather than Demanding that you become what my Fragile Ego needs you to be,” the actor wrote to Jada. “I’ve learned to take pleasure in Nourishing YOUR dreams.”

Revisit the couple’s tumultuous ups and downs below.

First impression

Will and Jada met at a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air audition in 1994 while he was married to Sheree Zampino, with whom he shares son Trey Smith.

Although they “connected” at an event held by Tisha Campbell, Jada was “clear” with Red Table Talk listeners in 2018 that they “did not have an affair while he was married.”

Will chimed in to say he was actually interested in Jada before he met Zampino and tied the knot, as he saw her in As the World Turns and thought their “energy would be magic.”
 

Will and Jada – seen here with his mum – first met in 1994 when she auditioned for the <i>Fresh Prince of Bel-Air</i>. Picture: Alamy
Will and Jada – seen here with his mum – first met in 1994 when she auditioned for the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Picture: Alamy


Making it official

Later in the same episode, Will described reconnecting with Jada after Zampino divorced him in 1995.

When he spoke to the Nutty Professor star and found out that she wasn’t seeing anyone, he said, “Cool, you’re seeing me now.”

Laughing, Jada recalled, “My dumbass was like, ‘OK.’”
 

After Will’s divorce from Sheree Zampino, he and Jada became an item. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images
After Will’s divorce from Sheree Zampino, he and Jada became an item. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images
 

Putting a ring on it

In November 1997, Will proposed to Jada while they were in bed.

The actress had moved from Maryland to California by this point, and the pair was living together in Los Angeles.

“The next day,” the duo “found out [they] were pregnant,” Jada revealed to People in a 1998 interview.

Wedding bells

Jada admitted on Red Table Talk in 2018 that she “upset” by having to walk down the aisle while three months pregnant with her first child after being “pressured” by her family.

Will, however, said, “There wasn’t a day in my life that I wanted anything other than being married and having a family.”

The couple wed in December 1997 in Maryland.
 

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett on their wedding day in 1997.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett on their wedding day in 1997.


Back-to-back babies

Jada became a mum in July 1998 when son Jaden Smith was born, followed by daughter Willow Smith in October 2000.

The little ones joined Trey, whom Jada has referred to as her “bonus” child on many occasions.

“It’s great when you can have a close relationship to a child that doesn’t necessarily see you as an immediate parent, but has trust in you,” she explained to Mercury News in 2014. “There’s a different kind of closeness. Trey is, like, my buddy.”
 

Will and Jada in 2000 when she was pregnant with their daughter Willow. Picture: Alamy
Will and Jada in 2000 when she was pregnant with their daughter Willow. Picture: Alamy

The couple share two children, Jaden and Willow, and Will has son Trey from his first marriage. Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
The couple share two children, Jaden and Willow, and Will has son Trey from his first marriage. Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
 

Open relationship rumours

In 2013, Jada clapped back at speculation that she and Will were in an open relationship, claiming they simply had a “relaxed” dynamic.

“I’ve always told Will: ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be OK,’” she told HuffPost Live at the time. 
 

Jada says they have a “relaxed” dynamic in their relationship. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images
Jada says they have a “relaxed” dynamic in their relationship. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images


“At the end of the day, Will is his own man.”

In a subsequent Facebook post, the Emmy winner added, “Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship … this means we have a GROWN one.”
 

Rumours of an open marriage began to swirl. Picture: Vince Bucci/Getty Images
Rumours of an open marriage began to swirl. Picture: Vince
Bucci/Getty Images
 
But the couple denied the increasing speculation. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
CaptionBut the couple denied the increasing speculation. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
 

Slamming split speculation

Will issued his own clapback in 2015 when he told Facebook users in all caps that he was “not getting a divorce.”

The rapper wrote, “Under normal circumstances, I don’t usually respond to foolishness (Because it’s contagious). But, so many people have extended me their ‘deepest condolences’ that I figured – ‘What the hell.’”

He clarified that his response came “in the interest of redundant, repetitious, over & over-again-ness.”
 

Putting on a united front at the 2015 premiere of Will’s movie Focus. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Putting on a united front at the 2015 premiere of Will’s movie Focus. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
 

Loose labels

By July 2018, Will and Jada didn’t refer to themselves as a “married” couple but instead as “life partners,” the I Am Legend star revealed on a Rap Radar podcast episode.

“You get into that space where you realise you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life,” he explained at the time. “There’s no deal breakers. There’s nothing she could do — ever.

“Nothing that would break our relationship,” Will continued. “She has my support till death and it feels so good to get to that space.”

Entering the entanglement

After August Alsina made headlines in June 2020 for alleging he had an affair with Jadayears prior, she admitted to an “entanglement” during a 2015 separation from her husband.
 

August Alsina revealed he was having an affair with Jada Pinkett Smith. Picture: Paras Griffin/Getty Images
August Alsina revealed he was having an affair with Jada Pinkett Smith. Picture: Paras Griffin/Getty Images
 

Jada and Will addressed Alsina’s claims on Red Table Talk the following month, with the Tony nominee saying she had been going through “a difficult time” after being “kicked to the curb” by Will before meeting the singer.

She insisted that Alsina was not a “homewrecker” and their romance was not a “transgression,” clarifying that she hadn’t spoken to her ex since her reconciliation with Will.

 
The couple have admitted in the past they have gone through “difficult” periods in their marriage. Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images
The couple have admitted in the past they have gone through “difficult” periods in their marriage. Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images
 

Broken up before

In the candid conversation, the couple also admitted to splitting in 2011 after Will threw Jada a 40th birthday that she felt was a “ridiculous display of [his] ego.”

Will wrote about these marital struggles in his Will memoir, published in November 2021.

“Our marriage wasn’t working,” he recalled. “We could no longer pretend. We were both miserable and clearly something had to change.”

Peeling back the curtain

While promoting his memoir, Will admitted in a GQ interview that Jada was not the “only one engaging in other sexual relationships” and called their union an “unconventional” one.

“Marriage for us can’t be a prison,” the Golden Globe winner said. “The freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”

However, Will didn’t “suggest [their] road for anybody.”
 

The couple call their marriage “unconventional” Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
The couple call their marriage “unconventional” Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
 

In defence

Will stood up for his wife at the Oscars in March 2022 when Chris Rock poked fun at Jada’s bald head amid her alopecia struggles.

“Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth,” he declared, getting up from his seat to slap the comedian across the face in a viral moment he later apologised for.

Jada told People in October 2023 that she initially thought the smack was a “skit,” noting, “I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him.’”
 

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage during the Oscars in 2022. Picture: Robyn Beck / AFP)
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage during the Oscars in 2022. Picture: Robyn Beck / AFP)


 
The couple at the Oscars moments before the scandal erupted. Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
The couple at the Oscars moments before the scandal erupted. Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
 

Secret separation

Jada revealed in the same People interview that she and Will were separated at the time of the slap — and had been since 2016.

“We’re still figuring it out,” she told the magazine while speaking about her Worthy memoir. “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 subsequent Today show interview, Jada explained to Hoda Kotb that she and Will “live separately” despite their willingness to “work through whatever” and “never … get a divorce.”

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission


 

Author: Editors Desk

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

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