The web of entanglements surrounding Will Smith and his wife of almost 25 years, Jada Pinkett Smith, is even bigger than fans might have imagined.
Smith, 53, publicly confirmed for the first time that his marriage to the actress was dealt more than just her romance with the singer August Alsina. The box office megastar is the cover story for the November issue of GQ, where he carefully peels back the layers of his life and marriage while promoting his new memoir “Will.”
Smith candidly but coyly tiptoed into revealing his own romances by starting with his past fantasies of having a harem of girlfriends. “I don’t know where I saw it or some s—t as a teenager, but the idea of traveling with 20 women that I loved and took care of and all of that, it seemed like a really great idea,” said the “Men In Black” star.
The revelations of his desires stemmed from years of personal work he’d done with intimacy coach Michaela Boehm. At the top of his list were actress Halle Berry — who he describes as being “fine” — and American Ballet Theatre dancer Misty Copeland. Once the list was completed Smith said the plan was for Boehm to reach out to each of the women but things never made it that far.
“After we played it out a little bit, I was like, ‘That would be horrific. That would be horrific’,” he said. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Last year Pinkett Smith opened up, alongside Smith on her Facebook Watch show “Red Table Talk,” about her “entanglement” with singer August Alsina. During the time of the affair she and Smith both agreed they were separated after enduring years of unhappiness and countless compromises in their marriage. Though the duo found their way back to one another, Smith ended the episode by saying, “I’ma get you back, first.” To which his wife responded, “I think you’ve gotten me back. I think we’re good on that.”
While viewers were left in the dark on how retaliation was dealt, the actor’s recent allusion to stepping out on his wife may have fans reassessing the depths of the couple’s entanglements. As GQ reporter Wesley Lowery summed up the “Red Table Talk” episode’s misdirection: “[A] viewer could have walked away thinking that Jada was the only one engaging in other sexual relationships, when that was not, Smith delicately explained to me, in fact the case.”
“For the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection,” Smith told GQ. Smith did not provide context on when the other romances took place, nor with whom.
“We have given each other trust and freedom, with the beliefs that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison,” he said. “And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
