Jada Pinkett Smith dropped the bombshell in a headline-grabbing interview last week that she and Will Smith have been separated for seven years.
But the actress has now retracted the explosive revelation, insisting that the couple are actually working “very hard” to “turn their relationship back into a civil partnership” and are “focusing on healing.”
In a new interview with Today, the 52-year-old claimed that people initially “overlooked” her wanting to explain that she and Will, 55, hadn’t given up.
It came just days after Jada shocked the world by sharing that the pair had been living “totally separate lives” since 2016 because they were “exhausted with trying” to re-establish their connection – and living apart, as Will apparently did Comedian Chris Rock defended her honor by slapping her face at the Oscars last year when he made a joke at her expense.
Jada clarified her comments on the Today show Monday ahead of the release of her new memoir, “Worthy,” saying, “We’re working very hard to get our relationship back together, yes, get our relationship back together… Back to a civil partnership.” ” , Yes.
Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and her husband Will Smith are “working very hard” to get their marriage back together
The actress admitted last week that she and Will have been separated for seven years
“Marriage between a man and a woman for me, for my healing process.” I came to it with very specific ideas, right? Very specific ideas that were blockers. For me it’s easy to see Will for who he is. He can’t be this perfect idealized husband.
“I have to be able to accept him for the person he is.” He accepts me for the person I am and we want to love each other there. “We worked really hard.”
Jada’s clarification shocked host Hoda Kotb, who replied in disbelief, “Oh! OK. “Well, I didn’t know that.”
“That’s the point I wanted to make to you,” the actress continued. “You completely overlooked that. That’s the whole thing.’
Hoda asked, “Theoretically, maybe there’s no more divorce?”
The Girls Trip actress replied: “Yes. “No. We worked really hard.”
“So, wait,” a confused Hoda replied. “Just so I’m 100 percent sure. “They weren’t divorced on paper.”
“Right,” Jada said.
In a pre-recorded interview on the show last week, Jada explained to Hoda why her marriage to Will failed.
Jada insisted on the Today show that she was trying to get across her and Will’s commitment to repairing their marriage
“By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted from trying,” she said. “I think we were both still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.
“I promised that there would never be any reason for us to divorce. We will get through everything. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.’
“But you’re still separated?” Hoda asked, and Jada confirmed: “We’re separated.”
Jada and Will married in 1997 and had discussed breakups and marital problems in the past, but continued to gush about their romance in interviews and online.
Even after Jada admitted to having an affair with singer August Alsina on a 2020 episode of her Facebook Watch show “Red Table Talk,” the two continued to brazenly profess their love and commitment to each other on the site Love relationships They hit the red carpet, shared Instagram tributes and regularly referred to each other as “husband” and “wife.”
Then there was the moment Will appeared to defend his wife’s honor by storming the stage and slapping Chris at the Oscars after making fun of her bald hairstyle – not long after she revealed that she suffers from alopecia.
The prominent Hollywood couple has two children, Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22, and a son, Trey, 30, from Will’s first marriage to Sheree Zampino.
They were said to be extremely “relieved” that news of their parents’ split was finally out of the bag, after being drawn into the couple’s public lies by having to “pretend” their parents were in a happy marriage.
Over the weekend, Will broke his silence on his wife’s confessions, admitting in an email to The New York Times that he had developed an “emotional blindness” to her “hidden nuances.”
The publication claimed her new memoir “somehow woke up” Will as he realized his wife was living “on the edge” than he first thought and was “more resilient, smarter and more compassionate than he had imagined.”
“When you’ve been with someone for more than half your life, a kind of emotional blindness sets in and it’s all too easy to lose sensitivity to that person’s hidden nuances and subtle beauties,” he wrote in the email.
Available from October 17th! Jada has been promoting her 416-page memoir, Worthy
Jada (seen with Will in 2022 – six years after their split) said she thought about a legal divorce but was never able to go through with it
Jada and Will at the 2022 Oscars with their children Jaden and Willow as well as Will’s son Trey, 30, from his first wife Sheree Zampino
He also posted a video of himself on a boat on Instagram with the caption: “Notifications off :).”
Jada commented with two laughing emojis.
News of their split last week came as a shock to many, and the couple faced criticism following Jada’s confession.
The View’s Ana Navarro said helping the actress “sell books” was an “unseemly” money-making ploy.
“I think she has a relationship with her bank account because every time she needs to increase the ratings of the Red Table, for example, every time she needs to sell books, she drops these bombs,” Ana said. “I find it inappropriate.”
She later added on the View podcast: “I don’t know Will Smith or Jada.” I like Will Smith so much, I grew up with him, I grew up with the prince, I love his movies, I like his charisma, he Seems like such a nice guy and I feel sorry for him. “I feel like he’s constantly being belittled and embarrassed by Jada, for what reason I don’t know.”