Jada Pinkett Smith’s recent revelation about her long-term separation from husband Will Smith has left the world in shock. In a candid interview, the actress disclosed that she and Will had been living separately for seven years, highlighting their “exhaustion with trying” as the main reason behind their concealed split.
Jada, at the age of 52, chose to be somewhat vague about the specific factors that led to the “fracture” in their marriage. The couple had maintained the façade of a united front, which they continued until her revelation, making no mention of the tumultuous events that unfolded in their relationship.
What remained unsaid in her recent disclosure is that their separation occurred in the same year that Jada had a well-documented affair with singer August Alsina, a fact she first shared with the world in 2020. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, host Hoda Kotb questioned Jada about the reason behind their fractured relationship. In response, Jada said, “Oh, why it fractured? That’s a lot of things, and I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying.”
The mother of two went on to emphasize that they had no intention of getting divorced. She elaborated, saying, “I think we were both kind of 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.”
Curiously, it was in 2016, the same year as their separation, that Jada became romantically involved with August Alsina. The news of Jada’s affair with August surfaced in 2020, at which point both she and Will initially denied the allegations, insisting that they were “absolutely not true.”
However, August Alsina contradicted these denials during an interview with radio host Angela Yee in June of that year. He revealed that he had been romantically involved with Jada and claimed that Will had given his blessing to the relationship.
In his own words, August stated, “I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership. He gave me his blessing.” August conveyed his deep love for Jada and the emotional investment he had made in their relationship. He explained, “I gave my full self to it. So much so that I can die right now, and be okay knowing that I fully gave myself to somebody, some people never get that in this lifetime. It almost killed me. Not almost. It did – it pushed me into being another person. It broke me down.”
He also addressed the controversy surrounding his revelations, stating, “It probably will be the hardest thing I ever had to experience in this lifetime. Contrary to what some people may believe, I’m not a troublemaker. I don’t like drama. Drama actually makes me nauseous. I also don’t think that it’s ever important for people to know what I do, who I sleep with, who I date, right? But in this instance, there are so many people who are side-eyeing me… And I think it’s because people don’t necessarily know the truth.”
In response to August’s claims, Jada sat down with Will the following month and chose to address the status of their relationship, filming the entire conversation for her Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk. During this candid discussion, Jada confirmed her “entanglement” with August but maintained that she and Will were separated at the time. She clarified, “We were over. From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August.”
