Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith may have one of the longest lasting marriages in Hollywood — but they’ve technically been separated for years.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum met the actress in 1994, but the two did not begin dating until the following year. They married on New Year’s Eve in 1997. Nearly 20 years later, however, Pinkett Smith admitted that she regretted beginning her relationship with Smith while he was still married to his ex-wife, Sheree Zampino.
“Because I did not understand marriage, I did not understand divorce,” she said during the 2018 premiere episode of Red Table Talk, which featured Zampino as a guest. “I probably should have fell back.”
Despite their rocky beginnings, the two women bonded after Pinkett Smith met Trey, Zampino’s son with Smith. In July 1998, Smith and Pinkett Smith welcomed son Jaden. Their daughter, Willow, followed in 2000.
While the couple became a model for marriage among celebrities — frequently praising each other and sharing their joy in the public eye throughout their two-plus decades of marriage — they dealt with drama behind the scenes. In 2020, Pinkett Smith revealed that she and Smith had separated in 2015 — and she had an “entanglement” with singer August Alsina. Though she and Smith briefly reconciled, the Scream 2 actress admitted in 2023 that she and Smith have been separated since 2016.
Scroll down to revisit the highs and lows of the Smiths’ decades-long marriage.
1994
Will and Jada met when she auditioned to play his girlfriend on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She did not get the part, and he was married to Sheree Zampino — with whom he shares son Trey — at the time. “I had a realization I wasn’t with the person I was supposed to be with,” he recalled on Red Table Talk in 2018. “I was sitting in a [bathroom] stall and I was crying and laughing uncontrollably, and I knew [Jada] was the woman I was supposed to be with.”
1995
The Men in Black star and the Gotham alum began dating in 1995 following his divorce from Zampino. He asked Jada if she was “seeing anyone” and when she told him she wasn’t, he made his move. “Cool. You’re seeing me now,” he replied.
1997
Will proposed to Jada in November 1997, and they tied the knot one month later. The top-secret wedding took place at a hotel in her native Baltimore.
1998
The couple’s son, Jaden, arrived in July 1998. He later starred in multiple films with his father — including The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth.
2000
Will and Jada welcomed daughter Willow in October 2000. She pursued music like the rest of her family and cohosts Red Table Talk with her mom.
2013
The Girls Trip actress made waves in April 2013 when she addressed rumors that she and Will have an open relationship. “I think that people get that idea because Will and I are very relaxed with one another,” she told HuffPost Live. “But 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.’”
Jada later denied on several occasions that the two are swingers.
2015
Split speculation plagued the pair repeatedly through the years, but the Grammy winner had enough in August 2015. “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… I can be foolish, too!’” he wrote via Facebook. “So, in the interest of redundant, repetitious, over & over-again-ness… Jada and I are… NOT GETTING A DIVORCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
2018
Will surprised fans in July 2018 when he revealed on TIDAL’s “Rap Radar” podcast that he and Jada do not say they are “married anymore.” The Oscar nominee elaborated that they “refer to ourselves as life partners, where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There’s no deal breakers. There’s nothing she could do — ever. Nothing that would break our relationship. She has my support till death and it feels so good to get to that space.”
2020
August Alsina claimed in June 2020 that he had an affair with Jada, for which Will gave his blessing. However, the A Different World alum retorted in July 2020 that she got into an “entanglement” with the rapper without her husband’s blessing during a period when they were separated in 2015. The Smiths hashed out the debacle during an episode of Red Table Talk, revealing that they ultimately reconciled after starting to communicate again. She noted that the pair have “really gotten to that new place of unconditional love.”
2021
After shaving her head in July, the Gotham alum said that her husband was fully on board with the new look. “He loves it,” she told Tiffany Haddish during a September episode of Red Table Talk, adding that Will even texted a photo of his wife to Willow. “He was like, ‘Stunning.'”
Jada said she’d decided to go bald after too many years of dealing with the added stress of hair care. “It was just time,” she explained. “I was just ready for that kind of expression and release. I’m so glad I did it. It was such a beautiful experience and such a freedom. I feel more connected to myself and to the great divine in a very special way.”
2021
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage. … Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship. So, she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up,” Will told GQ’s Wesley Lowery while discussing his memoir, Will, in September 2021. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
The Hitch actor hinted that the couple had their own understanding about outside romances, noting that Jada wasn’t the only one who had extramarital affairs. “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison,” he said. “And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
Will also touched upon his wife’s public declarations about her “entanglement” with Alsina. “The public has a narrative that is impenetrable,” he explained. “Once the public decides something, it’s difficult to impossible to dislodge the pictures and ideas and perceptions.”
The Pursuit of Happyness actor didn’t expand on his wife’s comments, but he did say she wasn’t the only one to stray during their romance. “A viewer could have walked away thinking that Jada was the only one engaging in other sexual relationships, when that was not, Smith delicately explained to me, in fact the case,” Lowery wrote after speaking with Will.
March 2022
The Will author, who won for his role in King Richard, stepped out on the Oscars red carpet alongside Jada.
During the evening, the pair made headlines before the best actor category was announced when Chris Rock made a G.I. Jane joke about Jada, who has been open about suffering from hair loss.
The actress rolled her eyes, and then Will walked up on the stage at the Dolby Theater and slapped Rock before he returned to his seat. “Keep my wife’s name out your f–king mouth!” he shouted at the presenter. Rock had previously made jokes at Jada’s expense at awards shows in years past.
Will won the Oscar for Best Actor shortly after. In his acceptance speech, he apologized for his behavior. “I want to apologize to the Academy, I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees,” he said with tears in his eyes. “Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father just like they said about Richard Williams. Love will make you do crazy things.”
March 2022
Smith apologized for slapping Rock at the Oscars the following day. “Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive,” he said, in part, via Instagram. “My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.”
He extended his apologies to Rock, the Academy, the Williams family and the King Richard cast and crew. “I am a work in progress,” he added.
April 2022
“Jada absolutely loves and adores Will,” a source exclusively told Us of the couple post-Oscars drama. “They’re an unbreakable couple and they will be together forever. This is not going to affect their relationship in any way.”
The Madagascar actress “wants to just move on” after the awards show scandal, the insider said, noting, “This was not how she saw the night going — no one did. He was winning one of the most important awards of his life and the entire night became about Will and Chris [and] neither of them wanted that.”
Despite Will’s controversial actions during the Oscars, the duo will continue to “stick together through thick and thin,” per the source. “They have been through a lot together and this is just another battle for them.”
On April 8, the Academy came to a decision regarding Will’s future with the organization. Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson announced in a letter that the actor will be banned from all Academy events and programs for the next 10 years, both in-person and virtual. “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision,” Will told Page Six in a statement after the Academy made its decision public.
June 2022
“My deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile,” Pinkett Smith shared on Red Table Talk two months after Smith and Rock’s altercation at the 2022 Oscars.
“The state of the world today, we need them both. And we all actually need one another more than ever.” She also addressed her relationship with her husband, adding, “Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together.”
August 2022
The two were spotted in public for the first time since the Oscars when they dined at Nobu in Malibu, California.
September 2022
Six months after the Oscars, Jada celebrated her 51st birthday with her husband and kids. “I’m just gatreful. I’m deeply grateful,” she can be heard saying in a video shared via Instagram, after her loved ones serenade her. Will adds: “The end! She’s grateful … it’s the highest virtue.”
December 2022
The duo attended the premiere of Will’s film Emancipation together. The occasion marked the pair’s first red carpet appearance since the I Am Legend star slapped Rock at the Oscars in March 2022.
October 2023
Pinkett Smith dropped a bombshell when she revealed that she and Smith have been separated since 2016 — and were living apart. Still, the couple are “still figuring it out,” she told People, adding that she and Smith have “been doing some really heavy-duty work together.” The pair still have a “deep love for each other,” Pinkett Smith added, telling Today that she and Smith are “not ready” to divorce.
May 2024
Seven months after going public with their separation, Pinkett Smith supported Smith at the premiere for his movie, Bad Boys: Ride or Die. The pair walked the red carpet with their children and other members of their family.
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