• Will has responded to her revealing interview
• He says it woke him up
Will Smith has responded to Jada Pinket's revelations contained in her memoir dubbed Worthy.
It is set for release on October 17,
He has written an email to the New York Times, where he said that her account of their marriage in her memoir “woke him up.”
He realized “she had lived a life more on the edge” and that “she is more resilient, clever, and compassionate” than he’d understood.
“When you’ve been with someone for more than half your life, a sort of emotional blindness sets in,” Smith wrote. “And you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.”
Here is a list of things he has said over the years about their marriage:
The first time he ever spoke up was in August 2015 when there were rumors of a split.
On Facebook he said
"Under normal circumstances, I don't usually respond to foolishness (Because it's contagious). But, so many people have extended me their 'deepest condolences' that I figured – 'What the hell… I can be foolish, too!’ So, in the interest of redundant, repetitious, over & over-again-ness… Jada and I are… NOT GETTING A DIVORCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He concluded his statement by promising his fans that if he was to ever divorce his “Queen,” they would find out from him directly and not through the media.
A month later, Will praised Jada on her birthday in September 2015, sharing a TBT on Facebook. "This was taken at your mom's house 20 years ago. That's a long time ago!!! I have sung happy birthday to you 20 times and I have bought you 19 birthday presents. (I was mad that one year). I have watched you blow out 693 candles (737 after tonite). I’ve told you 'I love you' at least 8,285 times,” Smith wrote. “And of the nearly 3.96 Billion women on the planet – there is only 1 that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Happy Birthday, my Love!"
Two months later in November 2015, The Bad Boy actor spoke candidly with Entertainment Tonight that “marriage was the most difficult, grueling, excruciating thing that we have ever taken on in our lives. And you know we’re just not quitters.” His advice? “If there is a secret I would say it is that we never went into working on our relationship. We only ever worked on ourselves individually — and then presented ourselves to one another better than we were previously.”
In January 2018, he paid tribute to Jada on their wedding anniversary, with lessons learned. “Love is Like Gardening... I have learned to focus on HELPING you to BLOSSOM into what YOU want to be (into what you were born to be)... Rather than Demanding that you become what my Fragile Ego needs you to be,” he wrote. “I’ve learned to take pleasure in Nourishing YOUR dreams... Rather than wrestling with you to Fulfill my Selfish Needs and satiate My Insecurities.” “I have learned that Love is Listening. Love is Giving,” Smith continued before adding, “Happy Anniversary, My Queen! I am forever Devoted to Nurturing your Deepest Truth.”
Will revealed that he and Jada no longer say they’re “married anymore” during an interview on TIDAL’s Rap Radar podcast in July 2018. “We refer to ourselves as life partners, where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There are no deal breakers. There’s nothing she could do — ever. Nothing that would break our relationship,” he said. “She has my support till death and it feels so good to get to that space.”
During an October 2018 appearance on his wife's Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk, Will admitted that “there was a period" in their marriage where Jada "woke up and cried 45 days straight." He added: “It was every morning. I think that’s the worst I’ve ever felt in our marriage. I was failing miserably.”
Smith admitted she didn’t want the life he built for them at one point during their marriage. “To have to let go of the picture, to have to let go of the dream was devastating. We essentially had to destroy our marriage,” he confessed. He said divorce was never an option regardless.
In September 2021, Will said “Jada never believed in conventional marriage. … Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship. So, she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up,” the actor told GQ’s Wesley Lowery. “There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection. What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
The Aladdin actor continued, “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison. And I don’t suggest our road to 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.”
March 2022, the King Richard star shuts down speculation that they've ever accused each other of cheating in the past. "Never. There's never been infidelity in our marriage," he told Gayle King on CBS Sunday Morning, noting that the pair "talk about everything" with one another. "And we have never surprised one another with anything ever."Will continued: "I have decided that chatter about my life can be of benefit to people. I think that chatter is the first stage to having a real conversation and being able to truly explore if some of the things in your heart are loving, or poisonous."
Comments from Cosmopolitan Magazine, US Weekly, and Oprah Daily
Chris Muriithi - Dating women prepared me to handle stress