During the Wednesday, April 29 episode of her “Red Table Talk” show, Jada Pinkett Smith said that Will Smith is pretty much a stranger to her.
The Smiths are like many other couples who’ve been staying indoors for long periods of time as a part of shelter-in-place orders resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19. She called the current situation “challenging” and said it forced her to look at things differently.
Jada Pinkett Smith also explained how she created a certain narrative about who Will Smith is over the years.
“I have to be honest. I think one of the things that I realize is that I don’t know Will at all,” she revealed at around the 26:08 mark of the interview. “I feel like there’s a layer that you get to. Life gets busy, and you create these stories in your head, and then you hold on to these stories and that is your idea of your partner. But that’s not who your partner is.”
Jada Pinkett Smith said she and Will Smith are now in a phase where they’re learning to be friends. She feels it’s a necessary process to help shed her ideas of what a marriage should look like.
“Let me tell you, that’s been something to be married to somebody for 20-some-odd years and then realize I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but also realizing too there’s an aspect of yourself that you don’t know either,” she said.
Sheltering in place to help cut down on the spread of the coronavirus has affected other things for Jada Pinkett Smith outside of her relationship.
She revealed in another “Red Table Talk” episode, released earlier in April, that her time sheltering has stirred up some old emotions that in the past led to her consuming a lot of alcohol.
Jada Pinkett Smith admitted during that episode that she used to drink multiple bottles of wine back to back. She explained that delving deeper into her spiritual practices has helped her refrain from repeating those past behaviors.
“It’s been a long time since I had a drink,” she stated. “But old emotional habits try to creep back in.”
In that same episode, titled “Coping With Addiction During Coronavirus,” Jada Pinkett Smith’s mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, said staying indoors had the opposite effect on her because she’s been attending online rehab meetings.
Banfield-Jones has spoken before about being a former heroin addict. She’s been in recovery now for 29 years.
Will Smith wasn’t present for that particular episode, nor did he join the discussion about relationships in the more recently released “Red Table Talk.”
