Will Smith Shares Intimate Details About Separation Period From Wife Jada Pinkett

Many gasped when Jada Pinkett Smith brought herself to her famous Red Table on her Facebook Watch series to reveal her previous “entanglement” with singer August Alsina. Some of the gasps were due to her longtime husband, blockbuster actor Will Smith, sitting across from her at the table in support. The couple explained that Jada and Alsina’s whirlwind romance occurred during a separation period between Will and Jada. The couple eventually reconciled.

Now, Will is giving more clarity around their separation period. In a sitdown with Oprah Winfrey on Apple+ to discuss his memoir Will, the Men In Black star provides some context around when things in their marriage changed. Jada has been vocal about never believing in the traditional idea of marriage, while Will was the opposite. But Will had to meet Jada halfway in order to make their union work. He says the turning point in their relationship happened after spending a year planning Jada’s 40th birthday party that she eventually was dissatisfied with. 

“We realized that it was a fantasy illusion that we could make each other happy,” Will told Oprah. “We agreed that she had to make herself happy and I had to make myself happy. Then we were going to present ourselves back to the relationship already happy — versus demanding that the other person fill our empty cup…We just decided, ‘You have to figure out how to be happy.” 

Will says he was more contentious to Jada than she was to him, admitting he told her: “‘Go figure out if you can be happy and prove to me it’s even possible.’ I’m gonna do me and you do you.”

Doing them turned into a separation period. During that infamous Red Table Talk episode, the couple admitted they were headed to divorce, with Will saying he never thought he’d ever even speak to Jada again once they went their separate ways. But, he says they never “officially” separated, at least legally.

In the book, Will writes that it made their relationship better. “Our time apart helped us both to discover the power of loving in freedom,” he said. “We’re simultaneously, 100 percent bound together and 100 percent free. We agree that we were both imperfect people doing our best to how to figure out how to be in this world joyfully,” Yahoo! News reports.

When Oprah asked what “loving in freedom” means, Will told her: “You love in freedom with everybody except your partner,” using the example that people give room in their relationships with friends and their growing children. For his marriage, he says, “It’s friendship versus marital prison.”

On rumors of their open marriage, Will says he laughs at people’s constant wondering of who he and Jada are intimate with outside of each other. He says it was simply realizing they are not responsible for one another’s happiness. “Since we are talking about it, Oprah, let’s just talk about it: No woman can make me happy, so I don’t need to look for one to try and make me happy,” he said. “No man can make Jada happy, so she don’t need to go look for one to make her happy. We both know that. There is no person that will fill your hole.” He then laughed, “That was probably not the best way to say that, but y’all know what I mean.”