In 2018 during an episode of “Red Table Talk,” Will Smith talked about he and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith temporarily splitting during their marriage due to a rough patch.
During that same episode, he also admitted to having an ego problem after his wife pointed it out.
Pinkett Smith is on the cover of People’s latest issue, along with her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, and daughter Willow Smith, who also hosts “Red Table Talk.” And the actress gave more details about her marriage.
In short, Pinkett Smith suggested that her husband was focused on career instead of family and more attention had to be given to her and their children.
“It just felt like loss,” Pinket Smith explained. “There was too much concentration on what was happening externally, and the family unit itself wasn’t getting the attention and care that I felt we needed.”
The “Menace II Society” star then recalled a time when Smith seemingly confused material success with relationship success.
“Will’s like, ‘We just came from Oslo going to the [2009] Nobel Peace Prize ceremony [for Barack Obama] as a family, you’ve got a big house with a lake — isn’t this amazing?’” she remembered him saying. “And I’m like, ‘No.’ By the time my 40th [birthday] came, I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ I was so depleted.”
In a 2013 interview with the Australian press, Smith referred to his wife, daughter and son Jaden Smith all being entertainers as “The family business,” and Pinkett Smith implied that she got lost helping with everyone’s career.
“I had to really take time out for me and figure out what I wanted for myself,” she explained. “I had to kind of put everyone aside and ask, ‘What would I do every day if it was just Jada?’ I literally had no idea … By redefining myself, the relationship got redefined.”
But based on the bond and deep love the couple had and still have for each other, they were able to turn things around.
“I am kind of a ride-or-die chick,” said the actress. “I just knew with the kind of love that Will and I share — which is beyond romantic love — that we could transform our union and figure out how to re-create what we had.”
“The journey between Will and me, we have come to such a beautiful place,” Pinkett Smith added. “I feel like we have a stronger bond than we even had in the beginning.”
