From their wacky views on parenting to their very unusual take on marital fidelity, Will and Jada Smith have long been Hollywood’s ultimate odd couple.
For those brave enough to poke their absurd bubble, and most do so gently since they are such an impressive power couple, they are a comedian’s dream.
They had previously been a target for Oscar presenter Chris Rock when Smith, just minutes before being named Best Actor, also took home the award for Most Outrageous Oscar Behavior in History by slapping Rock after complaining about the his wife’s hair had joked.
The audience’s decision to give him a thunderous ovation for his acting gong, even as Rock was still rubbing his face, speaks volumes for Hollywood’s cowardly hypocrisy.
Only late last night, Oscars bosses condemned Smith’s behavior and said they would “consider further action and consequences consistent with our statutes, standards of conduct and California law.”
Independence Day and Men In Black star Will Smith once told the Mail, “I don’t think people understand my background. I’m happy all the time and people see me smiling. I don’t think people realize the path I’ve taken to get where I am and the beast that lurks when provoked.
It’s fair to assume that everyone now knows about the beast. It’s actually not the first time Smith, 53, has been accused of having a bad temper behind the smiley Mr Nice Guy facade.
Will, 53, and Jada Smith, 50, have long been Hollywood’s ultimate oddball couple with wacky views on parenting to their very unusual take on marital fidelity (pictured at last night’s Vanity Fair Oscar Party).
In 1989, the actor and rapper spent a night in jail for his involvement in an incident that Philadelphia police said nearly blinded record producer William Hendricks. Days after winning a Grammy Award, he was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and criminal conspiracy. The charges were later dropped.
Another possible clue to his temper was revealed in a 2021 memoir in which he confided that his father, a refrigerator engineer, used to beat his mother and that although he was a young child, he felt cowardly, because he didn’t intervene.
Years later, when his father had cancer and was confined to a wheelchair, he considered killing him to avenge his mother, he said. In fact, in his Sunday night acceptance speech, he emotionally spoke of a higher power urging him to “love people and protect people and be a flux for my people.”
After Will married Jada Pinkett (the couple pictured in California in 1996) in 1997, his personal life seemed to settle down and they set about establishing their connection as one of Hollywood’s most enduring
After marrying Jada Pinkett in 1997, his personal life seemed to settle down and they set about establishing their union as one of Hollywood’s most enduring ones.
Lasting but hardly conventional — given later revelations about their unorthodox marriage.
They met in 1994 when she auditioned for the role of his character’s girlfriend on his hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (she was too short and another actress got the part). Two years earlier, Smith had married actress Sheree Zampino and they had a son, Trey. But when he saw Jada, he said, he realized he’d married the wrong woman.
“There was a unique, beautiful power,” Smith said of his first night with Jada. “We had that moment and we bonded, but I was married.” The following night, he ate with Sheree but had to go to the bathroom, where he “burst into tears.”
Sheree filed for divorce on Valentine’s Day 1995 and Smith married Jada two years later. And yet, Jada later revealed that she actually never wanted to marry him. She had always had her doubts about marriage, but felt compelled to do so after becoming pregnant with their first child, Jaden. Somewhat clinically, she said she knew she was pregnant “just four seconds” after the couple had sex.
“I was so upset that I had to get married,” she said in 2018. “I cried down the whole aisle.” She added, “I just never really agreed with the construct. I still don’t.’
However, Smith felt the exact opposite, admitting, “There wasn’t a day in my life that I wanted anything other than to be married and have a family. Literally from the age of five, I began imagining what my family would be like.”
Three years later, they had a second child, Willow.
R&B singer August Alsina announced in 2020 that he had a longtime affair with Jada (the couple pictured in 2017) while she was married to Smith. The couple initially denied it, then admitted it happened after the Smiths temporarily split a few years earlier. Alsina was introduced to Jada by her son Jaden at a music festival in London in 2015
Now, two precocious 20-year-olds, Jaden and Willow were homeschooled and are now rappers and singers, respectively. They are probably even more demonstratively absurd and tell an interviewer in all seriousness how they can control and warp time.
“I can do it slow or fast as I please, so I know it doesn’t exist,” Willow said. Her brother agreed: “On the level of being here on earth, a second can take a year if you’re aware in a moment.” And they meant business.
Her father is similarly prone to ridicule, and in their open marriage, for example, insists that he and Jada never be unfaithful because they are always honest with each other when it comes to their love affairs.
Will and Jada’s relationship has been the subject of intense speculation from the start, and Jada was well aware of that. “I’ve heard it all — their marriage isn’t real, he’s gay, she’s gay, they’re swinging,” she said in 2009. “I’ll tell you what, it’s too hard being in a marriage of convenience.”
And yet, “pretend” might have been the word some would have used when R&B singer August Alsina revealed in 2020 that he had a longtime affair with Jada while she was married to Smith.
The couple initially denied it, then admitted it happened after the Smiths temporarily split a few years earlier. Alsina was introduced to Jada by her son Jaden at a music festival in London in 2015.
Friends said Alsina – 21 years younger than Jada, whom he described as “God’s divinity” – became so close to the Smiths that he went on holiday with them and stayed at their £32million mansion in Calabasas, Los Angeles, stayed. He claimed Smith actually gave his blessing to his affair with his wife — a claim Jada denied.
Meanwhile, Smith admitted to interviewers that his wife wasn’t the only one sleeping around. They had both started exploring polygamy after being “miserable” and realizing “something had to change.”
He said ominously to GQ magazine last year: “We gave each other trust and freedom, believing that everyone has to find their own way.”
The couple, who can never be accused of not taking themselves seriously (Smith once said he plans to become US President), have had “endless discussions” about the nature of the “perfect relationship,” Smith said.
And he admitted he once dreamed of having a 20-person “harem of girlfriends,” including actress Halle Berry and ballerina Misty Copeland.
Will and Jada’s relationship has been the subject of intense speculation from the start, and Jada was well aware of that. “I’ve heard it all — their marriage isn’t real, he’s gay, she’s gay, they’re swinging,” she said in 2009. “I’ll tell you what, it’s too hard to be in a fake marriage.” Academy Awards last night)
Although he was ashamed of his steamy thoughts because of his Christian upbringing, a “celebrity intimacy counselor” had helped him “recognize that my thoughts were not sins and even acting on an impure thought didn’t make me a piece of shit.” *’.
In fact, Jada long ago hinted that she gave Smith the green light to find other sexual partners, saying, “I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay.” For the most part, the Smiths have kept quiet about who they shared their open marriage with.
In 2011, it was alleged that Jada and singer Marc Anthony, then married to Jennifer Lopez, had been “unreasonably close” and were caught together at the family home. They denied the allegations. Will Smith is said to have started an affair with actress Margot Robbie while filming Focus in 2015, which led to them filming torrid sex scenes.
Both stars denied the claims, although Miss Robbie preferred a shot of alcohol to talking about Smith during an episode of Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
The Smiths have also spent many years deflecting allegations that they have fallen into Scientology, which is classified as a religion in the US but a cult in other countries.
After being brought to the attention of Tom Cruise in 2004, the couple donated generously to the church, most controversially when they spent almost £1million to set up a school in 2008. They said they designed their “leadership academy” unconventional curriculum, but insiders claimed it was effectively based on Scientology.
Both Jaden and Willow attended the school, but the school closed six years later when most parents removed their children.
Tony Ortega, an expert on the controversial group, said yesterday that the couple left Scientology in 2015 and that Will was at least always “trying.”
Given these extraordinary turns in Will and Jada’s relationship, it’s a little ironic that Will has now jeopardized his future by jumping so violently in her defense.