Jada Pinkett Smith sent shockwaves around the globe when she admitted to an “entanglement” with singer August Alsina in July 2020. She invited her husband Will Smith onto Red Table Talk to clear the air shortly following the bombshell news. Now in a cover interview with GQ, the Gemini Man star has admitted that the public didn’t get the full story.
“The public has a narrative that is impenetrable,” Smith told the publication. “Once the public decides something, it’s difficult to impossible to dislodge the pictures and ideas and perceptions.”
While Smith decline to share further details into the supposed scandal, an excerpt from his namesake memoir Will, does reveal the pair were unhappy in their marriage.
“Our marriage wasn’t working,” Will wrote, according to the outlet. “We could no longer pretend. We were both miserable and clearly something had to change.”
The 53-year-old who will celebrate 24 years of marriage to his wife in December explained how their relationship evolved into something more “unconventional”. He also noted that monogamy – having just one sexual partner at any time – was not the only way to “relational perfection”.
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage,” he said.
“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. 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.”
Smith continued, “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison. 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.”
