Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith's split: What you need to know

It seems as though 2023 is the year of the split, with countless celebrity couples announcing it's over, but none have gone down quite the same way as Jada Pinkett Smith, 52, and her split with Will Smith, 55.

What you need to know

• While promoting her new memoir Worthy, Jada announced last week that she and Will have actually been separated since 2016 but have chosen not to divorce.

• This means that during the infamous 2022 Oscars, where Will slapped host Chris Rock for making a joke about Jada's lack of hair and told him to "keep my wife's name out of your f**king mouth", they weren't actually together.

• Despite the fact the pair have been attending events together, like the Oscars last year, she revealed they have been living separately.

• Jada also hit back at claims she cheated on Will with R&B singer August Alsina, despite confessing to having an "entanglement" with him during a Red Table Talk episode with her husband.

• Interestingly, after announcing the split, Jada claimed people "missed" the point that she was trying to make, and she and Will are "working very hard" to save their marriage.

🗣️ What they said

Jada told Today's Hoda Kotb about the split last week: "By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying," she told the host before adding she doesn't want to get divorced.

"I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce," Jada added. "We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise."

The star continued, "We are working very hard at bringing our relationship, yes, bringing our relationship back together … Back to a life partnership, yes."

"Husband-wife marriage for me, for my healing process. I came into that with very specific ideas, right? Very specific ideas that were blocks. To me just seeing Will to who he is. He can’t be this perfect idealised husband. I have to be able to accept him for the human he is. He accepts me for the human that I am, and we want to love each other there. We really have been working hard."

Will addresses the split with The New York Times: The actor told the publication Jada's memoir "kind of woke [him] up" and he realises she is more "resilient, clever and compassionate than he'd understood".

"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," he told them via email.

Jada said during a talk at the Perelman Performing Arts Centre in New York on Monday night: "When I was sitting at the Oscars, it clicked in. As soon as I was like, 'Oh snap, you hit Chris?' I was like, I’m riding with you. I didn’t come into this place as your wife, but I’m leaving here as your wife because we got a storm we’re going to have to deal with together. I am not gonna leave your side."

A source reportedly close to Will and Jada's children Jaden and Willow Smith told Entertainment Tonight: "They know [Will] has been going through a lot lately and this isn’t helping."

The insider added, "They wish some of their family’s private matters remained private," adding Will has been "trying to stay busy" by "hanging out with his good friends and his kids".

"He’s trying not to let any outside noise impact him. Will loves Jada and feels like he has always had her back and always will. He has been trying to be supportive while also taking care of himself."

💬 Conversation starter

While Jada and Will have been split up for some time and may be working on getting back together, the 52-year-old actress has also revealed to The Times that she believes they will eventually live together again so that she can "take care of" the 55-year-old actor because he's "getting old".

She said, "I think eventually we will [live together again.] I really do. Will's getting old. I'm staying quite young, but it's getting apparent to me that he's gonna need someone to take care of him."

❗ It’s hard to believe, but…

Jada also revealed last week that Chris Rock actually asked her out, telling People of her Madagascar co-star, "Basically, he was like, 'I’d love to take you out'.

"And I was like, 'What do you mean?' He was like, 'Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?' I was like, 'No. Chris, those are just rumours'.

"He was appalled. And he profusely apologised and that was that."

🗞️ For more about...

• Jada Pinkett Smith clarifies relationship with August Alsina: 'I did not cheat on Will Smith'

• Jada Pinkett Smith Is ‘Talking’ to Will Smith ‘About Writing a Book Together’ Following Separation Reveal: It’s Called ‘Don’t Try This at Home’

• Jada Pinkett Smith Says Oscars Slap Re-Affirmed Her Marriage to Will Smith After Years of Separation: ‘I’m Leaving Here as Your Wife’

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