It appears that Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith have been living a front for the past seven years. In her new book, Worthy, the 52-year-old actress reveals that she and her actor husband have been separated since 2016, meaning that when it came to the infamous slap from Will to Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the couple weren't even together by then. In the chapter titled “The Holy Joke, the Holy Slap, and Holy Lessons,” Jada opens up about Chris' joke and also witnessing Will slap the comedian on live television.
Jada, too, believed it was all an act at first. “When Chris was still standing afterward, I believed my observation to be true: Aha, this IS a skit,” the chapter reads.
But like many others, she soon realized that what had transpired was, in fact, real. In an excerpt from the book, she explained why Will's public assault of Chris was confusing.
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"I had my own premonition right before the incident on the Oscar stage. It flashed through my mind as Chris Rock’s face came across the screen as one of the presenters that night. In fact, my stomach clenched," Jada wrote. "He had been known to take swipes at me — and from the Oscar stage, no less. That had been in 2016, six years earlier, during what became known as #OscarsSoWhite."
She continued on to discuss the moment Chris made the G.I. Jane actor joke about her. "It was not because of the jab at my alopecia but, honestly, about the people I had met whose condition was far worse than mine. That was indeed a very light joke, as many expressed, but it was not about me. I was frustrated that the majority of folks can’t seem to understand how devastating alopecia can be."
"My heart broke for the many who live in shame, the children who have committed suicide after being teased and taunted by their classmates," she continued. And now the Oscars, in all its political correctness, was telling the world it was okay to make jokes at the expense of a woman suffering from alopecia?"
And then, within the next paragraph, Jada drops the biggest-kept secret that has already taken many by surprise. "It’s not until Will yells from his seat back up at Chris to 'keep my wife’s name out your [expletive] mouth,' and then repeats it, that I perceive the gravity of the situation, and that, no, it had not been a skit," she shared. "Even so, I am unclear on the reason why Will is so upset. We had been living separate lives and were there as family, not as husband and wife."
During an interview with Hoda Kotb from the Today show, Jada went into further detail, sharing that she and Will have been separated since 2016. "I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying," she shared.
Jada shared that she could never go through with a legal divorce. "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."
