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August Alsina was all over the headlines in 2020 after claiming an affair with Jada Pinkett Smith. Once the drama died down, the “I Luv This Sh*t” singer went on social media to address a comment that he was no longer important, pointing out a big issue with that statement. Find what he said exactly, here.

August Alsina and Jada Pinkett Smith together
August Alsina and Jada Pinkett Smith on the red carpet at an award show in June 2017 in Los Angeles, California | Paras Griffin/Stringer/Getty Images North America

The August Alsina and Jada Pinkett Smith timeline

Per Billboard, August Alsina met Pinkett Smith in 2015 at a concert where her kids, Jaden and Willow, were performing and quickly became friends. On Red Table Talk in 2018, he said Pinkett Smith became a big source of support as he battled an addiction to painkillers following an earlier accident.

“That was really a reality check for me ’cause I was like, ‘Wow, if someone else can love you that much that it hurts them, why doesn’t it bother you that you’re actually hurting yourself?'” he said of Pinkett Smith’s concern.

At some point in their friendship, things turned romantic. Rumors of their potential involvement swirled for years, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 when it was confirmed. Sitting down for an interview with Angela Yee of The Breakfast Club, August Alsina revealed he’d been “deeply” in love with Pinkett.

“I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life and I truly and really, really, deeply loved and have a ton of love for her,” he said. “I devoted myself to it. I gave my full self to it — so much so to the point that I can die right now and be OK with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody and I really loved a person. I experienced that.”

Jada Pinkett Smith later confirmed the romance

After August Alsina’s statements went viral, Pinkett Smith took to the red table with her husband, Will Smith, to address their relationship. She explained she had indeed had an “entanglement” with the “No Love” singer, though she clarified that she and Will had been separated at the time.

“I just wanted to feel good,” she said of her decision to become intimate with August Alsina. “It had been so long since I felt good. And it was really a joy to just help heal somebody. I think that has a lot to do with my codependency, which is another thing I had to learn to break in this cycle of just that idea of needing to fix and being drawn to people that need help.”

Going on, Pinkett Smith noted she had ceased contact with August Alsina and repaired her relationship with Will, whom she married in 1997. “We ride together, we die together. Bad marriage for life!” the two joked at the end of the interview.

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August Alsina’s life after the ‘entanglement’ scandal

Over time, the scandal pretty much became an afterthought — and, some would say, so did August Alsina. In late 2020, he took to Instagram to address a comment that he had become “irrelevant” since the drama with Pinkett Smith. He explained in a video that it’s “kind of an oxymoron” to call him irrelevant while continuing to think and talk about him.

“I took a small break from IG to let a bunch of noise die down, yet I’m still the topic of conversation somehow,” he said. “… Make that make sense.”

He did not directly address the scandal, but he previously told People that regardless of what happened he still had love for Pinkett Smith. “There’s a lot of love there,” he claimed. “Sometimes truth is complicated and difficult. But [my relationship with them isn’t] broken at all.”

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