Will and Jada Pinkett Smith had long been Hollywood’s it couple and a bastion of the zeitgeist of Black love, so admirable that it had been immortalized in songs by J. Cole, Alicia Keys, Davido, John Legend, Nicki Minaj, Common, Nas, Skrillex and Ludacris, and that’s just the famous people.
There are hundreds of songs that mention their coupledom, including one in German. They branded a love so palatable that it was universally hailed as relationship goals. Their relationship was conventionally unconventional: the goofy nerdy guy who is the coolest corniest and most lovable person in the room, married her, the ice queen who was just as warm to Will as it was perceived she was cold to the world — both visually stunning but not too much where you may have questioned your own beauty around them.
Will, the multi-hyphenate “guy’s guy.” The big box officer star with the biggest personality married the Black-famous, quietly intense girl next door, who you didn’t know what she was thinking, but you wanted to know.
We loved everything about them loving each other, until, well, we didn’t.
“Divorce is not an option,” a phrase repeated ad nauseam throughout the course of most of their marriage, solidified their idolization. A couple that was determined to never give up and love beyond the boundaries of their own selves sounds so great in theory, but I imagine that no one who gets married ever really wants to divorce. “Divorce is not an option,” always sounded very pretentious to me and I don’t want to use the word, ‘elitist,’ but what did Will and Jada have that half of married couples don’t (other than hundreds of millions of dollars)? While financial difficulties are the reason that many couples do, in fact, divorce, I’m pretty sure they had access to things and people that would probably make their relationship more difficult to keep pure. People get divorced every day, B, for a variety of reasons.
I know nothing about Will and Jada’s marriage and yet I know too much.
It is very difficult to gauge the true interactions of a couple whom you only encounter via the screen and a paparazzi’s lens, other than them incessantly inviting you into their marriage by talking about it. Will and Jada married in 1997, before social media, and yet their love was still heavily on display. The rumors about their sex lives clashed and coincided with “divorce is not an option.” Were they swingers, and was that an attempt to preserve egos or a marriage? Maybe none of that is true, but what is true is that there was infidelity, even if their marriage was just on paper. While there were whispers of relationships featuring Will and Margot Robbie and Jada and Marc Anthony during their marriage, nothing was confirmed until singer August Alsina’s claims of a torrid May-December romance between him and Jada were too strong to refute — from the social media selfies to the red carpet photo with Alsina comfortably holding Jada’s waist — it was too much to deny, and so what does a Hollywood power couple do? They go on the offensive.
why are y’all so shocked about this jada pinkett smith shit? august alsina already told y’all what was up YEARS ago.. so the fact that so many of y’all let this part go over your head & bought into her false narrative is truly baffling???????????? pic.twitter.com/RDLciSToyA
— augustalsinasburner (@augsburner) October 11, 2023
Jada and Will both went on Red Table Talk, Jada’s now-defunct Facebook show, to share that the rumors were, in fact, true.
Jada admitted that she befriended someone who was one year shy of being half her age and helped nurse him back to help, just for them to fall into an “entanglement,” of sorts, but both denied the allegations by August that Will gave him his blessing, and both confirming that they were essentially broken up at the time. The two sat there, both in blue tops and black pants, inconspicuous enough but visually uniform enough to help paint the illusion of a united front, both holding in the hurt. Will notes how he is shocked that he is even speaking to her while also joking about getting her back — which she emphatically responds that he has already done. Neither use the word embarrassed, but it feels like a word they’ve both used before. The couple gives Oscar-worthy performances, with Jada winning on concealing her hurt the best. The internet laughs, the internet jokes, and then the internet moves on, sort of.
Jada Pinkett absolves herself of responsibility for Will Smith slapping Chris Rock and says she was shocked when Will Smith referred to her as his wife during the verbal tirade following the Oscar slap.
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) October 13, 2023
(???? @TODAYshow ) pic.twitter.com/emI7WYKBuW
Earlier this year, the Smiths’ relationship was under fire again, when Will smacked Chris Rock, who was hosting the Oscars, for making a joke about his wife’s hair loss. An extremely shocking moment overshadowed Will’s later win that same night. A win that Jada no doubt campaigned for, even if inadvertently, when she boycotted those same Oscars due to Will’s perceived snub for his role in “Concussion,” in 2016, the same year she began her friendship-turned-affair with Alsina. This was also when people began to turn on Jada. Somehow, being a vocal supporter of your husband’s career should only come on mute. The slap confirmed what people thought they knew about her — that she was a miserable shrew who took a tame and lovable guy and turned him into someone that the world no longer recognized — himself included. Her openly mourning the loss of her dear friend Tupac, who died the year before she married Will, only fueled the negative public perceptions about her because everyone can mourn Tupac except his actual best friend.
Even though it has not even been a year since the slap, Jada’s book, “Worthy,” is already receiving press, including an interview where it is revealed in the book that the couple essentially separated and had been living separate lives since 2016. It has been seven years and countless red carpets since, where the couple still maintained a united and convincing front. Will still tenderly kissed his wife, even if she was just his wife in the eyes of the law, their lawyers and their publicists. So much, though, was a lie, a sham and a shame because what it seems to really boil down to is that they were afraid to eat their words. The humiliation of failure was greater than the freedom and truthfulness that would come with divorce.
In an exclusive clip from an upcoming NBC News primetime special with @HodaKotb, Jada Pinkett Smith confirms to Hoda that there’s more to her marriage with Will Smith than she has previously shared.
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) October 11, 2023
Hoda speaks with Jenna about the interview: pic.twitter.com/xn5WEaCAkW
When I speak of failure, I am by no means referring to the actual marriage, a multiple-decade romance that gave birth to two beautiful and extremely talented children, would by no means qualify as a failure to me, but rather, they failed themselves by not admitting that they are in fact, human. Falling from the Black Love Mt. Rushmore would undeniably be humbling, but I think the constant embarrassing of each other is probably worse. No amount of money and access can save a marriage; it can make one easier, but it is not a panacea. Will and Jada may still be the best of friends, even if there were moments when they weren’t speaking, but that clearly is not enough to keep their marriage flawlessly intact. The couple both spoke about healing, and I imagine it is difficult to heal carrying around such a huge lie, so maybe this is where that really starts for them — I don’t know, and to be honest, it might be best that I knew less. I’m going to always root for love, but I know there are people ready to pounce on their ‘failure,’ and that’s why so many other Hollywood couples stay private.
Every great love story has its final page; whether that is divorce, or death, it will happen. If Will and Jada want to ride together and die together in a “bad marriage for life,” that is their right, but maybe both of them should consider their Independence Day as an option as well.
