Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, a surprising couple and a shocking face-to-face on TV before the slap: “Marriage can't be a prison”

The incident adds a new chapter to the particular story of Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, who are an unconventional couple, even by Hollywood standards.

Not only have they maintained an open relationship for years in which they are allowed to have relationships with other people, but they have had no problem discussing the issue publicly both in individual and joint interviews that they have had with the press.

Will met Jada when she unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. A few years later, they began dating and married in December 1997. They have spent more than two decades together, but the relationship has not been free of dramas and quirks. In 2013, Pinkett confessed that their marriage was open. “I've always told Will, 'You can do whatever you want as long as you can look in the mirror and be okay, '” he said. “I'm here as your partner. He has to decide who he wants to be and that's not up to me. And vice versa.”

The “entanglement” with Alsina

In 2020, rapper August Alsina revealed that he had had a history with Jada with the actor's permission. Alsina claimed that Will had given him “permission” to have an affair with his wife. On camera, the actor acknowledged that he knew about Jada's affair, but publicly denied having approved of the romance between his wife and his son's friend.

Jada, for her part, accepted that she had had a romantic “entanglement” with Alsina whom she met in 2015 through her son Jaden. “The only person who can give permission in that circumstance is me,” he insisted.

On top of the frank, face-to-face talk he later had with his wife about it, Smith reflected: “The search for truth is the only way to be happy in this life. And we agreed that authenticity was liberation from the shackles of fame and public scrutiny.”

On their Facebook program “Red Table Talk”, Pinkett and Smith spoke face-to-face and on camera about the matter.

Will took control of the situation and led her in the conversation, which became a public confessional in which they both seemed to be enjoying it.

“I think you need to say clearly what happened,” Will told him. “About what?” , he began to evade her, then he began to guide her: “We decided that we were going to give ourselves our space... and what happened?” “Yes, and then I got into a mess with August,” Jada finally admitted.

“A tangle?” , he replied with laughter. “Yes, she answered”, still not wanting to expand. “A relationship...” Will rated.

From there, things began to unwind. In a frank talk, the actors told for the first time that about 5 years ago they ended their relationship. “I really thought we were never going to talk to each other again, I felt that it was over,” he told her, still surprised at how they had managed to reconcile. “We had definitely broken up,” she adhered. And he began to tell how it was that he “got tangled” with Alsina: “4 and a half or 4 years ago I started a friendship with August. In fact we became very close friends. It all started because he needed help. I wanted to help him with his health, with his mental state. And I was also in a lot of pain, I felt destroyed and in the process of that relationship I realized that you can't find happiness outside of yourself.”

“What I remember is that when August appeared, I was very sick,” Will interrupted her. “And I was sick of your ass,” he added.

“And then what did you do, jada?” , she was again guided in her story by the actor. “As time went on, I got into another kind of entanglement with August. I just wanted to feel good. It had been so long since I didn't feel well. And it was a joy to help someone heal.”

With the weight of the “confession” out of the picture, Will and Jada continued to look each other in the eye and remember how they managed to put their marriage back together. They did not give details, but they did emphasize that they have been together for more than 20 years and that they plan to remain united for much longer.

In his new autobiographical book “Will”, the actor gave more details about his relationship with Jada, with whom he has two children, Jaden and Willow. “Marriage cannot be a prison for us,” he said frankly. And he admitted that while it was initially monogamous, they later decided to open it to stay together. “We couldn't pretend anymore. We were both miserable and clearly something had to change.”

“Jada never believed in conventional marriage,” the actor explained. “For much of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, without thinking about monogamy as the only way to relate. We have given each other confidence and freedom, with the conviction that everyone has to find their own way,” he explained. Far from making this revelation to show the fissures of his marriage, Will wanted to highlight that his love story with Jada is increasingly solid thanks to his work as a couple: “I don't suggest our way to anyone. But the experiences of the freedoms we have given ourselves and the unconditional support, for me, is the highest definition of love.”

Smith's fantasies

Another revelation that the actor made to GQ magazine was that he fantasized having romances with actress Halle Berry and dancer Misty Copeland. He said he used to dream of having a star-studded “harem of girlfriends”. “I don't know where I saw it or if it was an idea from when I was a teenager, but traveling with 20 women I loved and cared for and all that seemed like a great idea,” he said.

Will turned to Michaela Boehm, a relationship expert, who helped him understand that thinking about other women while you're married is normal. “What she was doing was freeing my mind, making it clear to me that it's okay to be myself and let me be myself. It doesn't make me a bad person to be married and think that Halle is a beautiful woman. With my Christian upbringing, even thoughts were sins.”

His first wife was Sheree Zampino. They met in 1991 thanks to a mutual friend. At the time, Smith was starring in the series that brought him worldwide fame. She was immersed in the world of fashion. Both were quickly arrowed, so they decided to marry on May 9, 1992. That same year, on November 11, the couple welcomed Willard Smith III, better known as Trey; he inspired and starred in the video for the song “Just the Two of Us”, which the actor released in the mid-nineties.

It was all over between them in one night. “It was one of the strangest emotions I've ever had. We were eating at a restaurant in New York and I remember waking up in the middle of dinner when I realized I wasn't with the person I was supposed to be with,” the four-Grammy winner revealed about the moment, in 1995, who realized I wasn't happy with Zampino.

“I don't think anything affected me as much as divorcing the mother of my two-year-old son. I separated and found that if a man is not a great husband, he loses his parental rights,” Will acknowledged in Red Table Talk. He added: “Divorce has been the biggest of my failures.”

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