How they kept up appearances by stepping out together on the red carpet


Jada Pinkett Smith says she and Will Smith quietly separated in 2016. However, they continued making red carpet appearances together, including here at last year’s Emancipation premiere, as they try to figure out how to move forward. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Jada Pinkett Smith reveals in new interviews ahead of her book Worthy that she and Will Smith have been quietly separated since 2016.

“It was not a divorce on paper,” Hoda Kotb says to Pinkett Smith in a teaser clip from her NBC News special airing on Friday.

“Right,” Pinkett Smith replies.

“… but it was a divorce,” Kotb adds.

“Divorce,” Pinkett Smith nods in agreement.

As for the secrecy, the Girls Trip actress, 52, went on to say that she was just not ready to discuss it publicly. As for what led to the split, she said, “A lot of things.” By the time they split, they were “exhausted with trying” to make it work. They have lived separately since, but remain business partners and parental-partners to their children: Jaden, Willow and Trey (from his first marriage).

As for why she hasn’t pulled the trigger on the divorce, she told Kotb, “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”

Pinkett Smith told People magazine, “We’re still figuring it out… We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”

The Smiths have put on a united front in public during their split

While they figure out what it looks like to them, to the world, it’s looked like they were a couple. Yes, there was her “entanglement” with August Alsina, which Pinkett Smith brought to the Red Table in 2020. And Smith later said, in his own memoir, that he was unfaithful himself. By the time the 2022 Oscars rolled around, during which Smith smacked Chris Rock for making a joke about Pinkett Smith and told the comedian to, “Keep my wife’s name our of your f***ing mouth,” the assumption was that they were very much together.

However, in a book excerpt on People, Pinkett Smith said by the time of the Oscars, “We had been living separate lives and were there as family, not as husband and wife.” And — at events both before and after — they kept up appearances. Here are just a few of their red carpet moments since the split…

They arrived arm in arm for his Emancipation premiere in November 2022.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend a premiere for the film

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the Emancipation premiere. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni) (Mario Anzuoni / reuters)

He even tenderly planted a kiss on her head.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 30: Will Smith (L) and Jada Pinkett Smith (R) attend the premiere of Apple Original Films'

Will Smith kisses Jada Pinkett Smith’s head. (Amy Sussman/WireImage) (Amy Sussman via Getty Images)

They walked the carpet holding hands for the 2022 Oscars.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith pose on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 27, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith pose on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 94th Academy Awards.(REUTERS/Mike Blake) (Mike Blake / reuters)

Inside the show, held at the Dolby Theatre, they had their heads pressed against each other as he won Best Actor for King Richard after the slap.

Will Smith reacts with his wife Jada to winning the Oscar for Best Actor in

Will Smith reacts with his wife Jada to winning the Oscar for Best Actor in King Richard. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder) (Brian Snyder / reuters)

They shared a kiss at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild awards.

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 27: (L-R) Will Smith, winner of the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role award for 'King Richard,' and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar on February 27, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. 1184550 (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith at the SAG Awards.(Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for WarnerMedia) (Emma McIntyre via Getty Images)

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 27: (L-R) Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith attend the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar on February 27, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. 1184619 (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith attend the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards at Barker Hangar on February 27, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. ( Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for WarnerMedia) (Matt Winkelmeyer via Getty Images)

Ditto at the King Richard premiere at AFI Fest in November 2021.

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 14: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 2021 AFI Fest - Closing Night Premiere of Warner Bros.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend 2021 AFI Fest. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic) (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images)

As well as at the Aladdin and Gemini Man premieres in 2019.

Cast member Will Smith kisses his wife actress Jada Pinkett Smith at the premiere of

Will Smith kisses his wife actress Jada Pinkett Smith at the premiere of Gemini Man. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni) (Mario Anzuoni / reuters)

Cast member Will Smith kisses his wife Jada Pinkett Smith during the premiere of

The pair at 2019’s Aladdin premiere. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (Mario Anzuoni / Reuters)

Didn’t let on in interviews either

Their interviews were more of the same. While there were certainly red flags — again, the entanglement, but also Smith’s memoir abruptly ending after he wrote about their blowup after her 40th birthday party in 2011.

On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen one year after the separation, Jada gamely played along talking about how she and Smith “keep it hot.”

Just last year, Smith talked on The Oprah Conversation about why he and Pinkett Smith were “still together” after all these years. He pointed to how they can talk for hours and have a unbreakable connection.

Pinkett Smith’s book Worthy comes out on Tuesday, spilling all the tea of the behind-the-scenes reality of their very public — and apparently complicated — relationship.



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