Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals 7-Year Separation from Will Smith Was Ongoing During Chris Rock Oscar Slap Controversy

In a bombshell reveal, Jada Pinkett Smith admits that she has been separated from Will Smith for seven years. The Red Table Talk host told Today‘s Hoda Kotb that she and the Oscar-winning actor have lived separately since 2016.

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith separated, but are not ‘technically divorced’

In an interview for Today, Jada Pinkett Smith told Hoda Kotb that she and her husband of 26 years, Will Smith, are separated but not “technically divorced.” She shared details regarding their marriage in her new book, Worthy, and publicly revealed these personal details for the first time on Oct. 11, 2023.

In a clip from her NBC News prime-time special with Hoda Kotb — which will air on Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. EST on NBC — Jada revealed the surprising details surrounding her marriage to Will. She explains they have lived “completely separate lives” since 2016.

“It was not a divorce on paper,” Kotb asks Jada about her current marital status. “Right,” she responded.

“But it was a divorce,” Kotb continued, with Jada confirming it was. She explained that the couple was “just not ready.”

“Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, in regards to how we present that to people? We hadn’t figured that out.”

“Why it fractured? That’s a lot of things,” she continued. “By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”

Were Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith separated during the Chris Rock Oscar slap controversy?

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith were separated during the 2022 Oscars but attended the event together with their family. Rock joked about some of the nominees in the lead-up to announcing the nominees.

He shifted his focus to Jada, sitting in the front row with a shaved head due to her battle with alopecia. “Jada, I love you,” Rock said. “G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it, all right?”

Following his commentary, Will Smith approached the stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face. “Wow! Wow!” Rock said. Will Smith just smacked the s*** out of me, everybody.”

Smith responded, “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth.” Like others watching at home, Smith admitted to People that she, too, thought it was a joke. “I thought, ‘This is a skit.’”

“I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’” Jada explained. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.”

Subsequently, even after winning an Academy Award as Best Actor for the film King Richard, Will apologized in his acceptance speech. “I want to apologize to the Academy,” he said. “I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees.”

Will later apologized to Rock on Instagram, saying, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line, and I was wrong. I am embarrassed, and my actions are not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

The actor’s actions came with consequences. Will has been banned from attending the Academy Awards for 10 years and will be eligible to return to the yearly event in 2032.

Will Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith ever divorce?

Pinkett Smith adds that while she has considered a legal divorce, she has never been able to go through with it. “I promised that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce.”

She continued, “We will work through … whatever,” Pinkett Smith says. “I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith are parents to two children. Jaden Smith and Willow Smith. Will also has an older son, Trey, from a previous marriage to Sheree Zampino.