Jada Pinkett Smith Says She and Will Smith Are ‘Staying Together Forever’ After Separation

Jada Pinkett Smith said that she and Will Smith will always be a couple despite separating in 2016.

Pinkett Smith, 52, appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show on Tuesday, November 28, to promote her memoir, Worthy, in which she wrote about her and Smith’s separation.

“I feel like maybe your and his shadow separated in a way in this book, whether they stay together forever or not,” Drew Barrymore told her guest. “It sounds like you’re staying together forever.”

“We’re staying together forever,” Pinkett Smith confirmed, adding that they she and Smith, 55, had “tried” to stay apart. “I think that one of those next stages in relationships is when you really learn how to accept yourself fully, you really learn how to accept your partner fully as well. That’s been a journey all in itself.”

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Pinkett Smith went on to say that her self-realization journey has helped her appreciate her husband more — and also Chris Rock, who was infamously slapped by Smith at the 2022 Academy Awards for making a joke about Pinkett Smith.

“You learn how to accept everyone else even when you’re dealing with their shadow,” Pinkett Smith explained. “You just learn how to embrace the light of people as well as the shadow. I love Will as who he is. I’ve learned to love and embrace Chris as who he is. And myself as well. And that’s what it’s about. We’re all here just trying to figure it out.”

During an appearance on CBS Mornings earlier this month, the veteran actress said that the Oscars incident brought her closer to her husband, whom she married in 1997.

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“Being there with him that night, what I did know was that I might not have walked in there as his wife, but I left that night as his wife,” she said.

One year after separating from the former Fresh Prince, Pinkett Smith starred in the 2017 comedy Girls Trip with Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish and Regina Hall. She played nurse Lisa Miller Cooper, who reunited with her college friends to attend the annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.

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“We had a good time on that movie. I would say we did a lot of improv-ing on that movie, and it would always be jumped off by Tiffany,” Pinkett Smith told Barrymore, 48. “Tiffany was always coming up with something wild to do in the scene, and we would play off of her.”

The film grossed over $100 million and led to calls for a sequel.

When Barrymore asked about the possibility of the ladies coming together for Girls Trip 2, Pinkett Smith said she hasn’t ruled it out. “I mean, look, they keep talking about it, so we’ll see,” she told the host. “It would be lovely to do.”