What happened with Jada and Will Smith? Relationship timeline, drama explained

No matter how much you might have tried avoiding it, you’ve likely heard more than you ever wanted to know about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith‘s relationship. Every new piece of information about their marriage feels like it’s been given to us against our will, slowly building this complex lore that could rival Star Wars. Recently, Jada revealed another piece to the puzzle that changed everything we thought we knew about the pair, so with this new information to hand, let’s recap the Hollywood power couple’s relationship from the beginning.

The early years

Will met Jada in 1994, on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the sitcom that turned Will into a household name in the mid-nineties. Jada had auditioned to play the part of Will’s on-screen girlfriend. although at the time, the Fresh Prince star was married to his wife of two years, Sheree Zampino. Will did start the relationship with Jada before he broke things off with Sheree, something which Jada admits is a regret for her. Will and Sheree had one son together, Trey Smith, and the two have managed to maintain a friendly co-parenting relationship.

The couple began dating in 1995 and, later that year, Smith ended his marriage with his ex-wife, and the two new lovers would tie the knot in 1997. A year later they welcomed their first child, Jaden, and two years after that in 2000, their second child, daughter Willow.

For a long time, the pair were presented as the perfect example of a Hollywood power couple. Both celebrating each other’s achievements and helping each other to grow. A lot of their relationship was shared with the public and for almost two decades, it seemed like everything was perfect for them. However, it seems there was trouble in paradise with a lot going on behind the scenes which didn’t become common knowledge until much later on.

Do Will and Jada have an open relationship?

The first hint of drama came 16 years after their marriage when rumors began spreading that Will and Jada were in an open relationship. Jada addressed the rumors but her comments didn’t exactly shut them down. Will himself confirmed in his memoir in 2021 that he and Jada had remained monogamous for a number of years but at some point, both had agreed to open up the relationship and given each other freedom to explore. Both Jada and Will have engaged in sexual relationships with others.

In 2015 there were rumors that the pair had split, at the time the rumors were denied by Will, however, it turns out that they had briefly separated during this time. This was also around the time Jaden Smith’s friend, singer August Alsina, had an affair with Jada. Although this wasn’t revealed until 2020, August claimed that Will had given his blessing whereas Jada contradicted the statement, claiming that Will had not given his blessing as they were separated at the time. The couple set the record straight on Jada’s talk show: Red Table Talk.

After the ‘entanglement,’ Will and Jada were able to reconcile and all seemed right once more. However, it wouldn’t last long as Jada revealed earlier this month that they had been living separately since 2016 and that they were still figuring out their lives together. Of course, this bombshell was dropped very recently and we’ve still got one more incident of note to cover before we get to the present.

The slap

By March 2022 the Smiths had revealed a lot about their relationship to the public. However, they were still presenting themselves as a married couple, whatever people thought about their relationship it was working for them, right? In fact, Will was so enamored with Jada that he felt the need to march up on stage and slap comedian Chris Rock for what was, in reality, a pretty tame joke about Jada’s hair. The Men in Black actor then shouted at Rock warning him: ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f****** mouth!’ 

Of course, the whole controversy that followed threw Will and Jada’s relationship under the spotlight once more. Did Will care too much about Jada? Did Jada care enough about Will? Neither Will nor Jada came out of the scandal looking particularly good.

Of course, it looks a lot worse now, in light of Jada’s revelation that the two aren’t even living together. However, Will had already made comments about the status of their relationship in 2018. Apparently, the pair don’t even call each other husband and wife anymore, which was revealed on the Rap Radar podcast. Many have questioned why Will felt it necessary to assault Chris Rock when he and Jada weren’t even together.

We may never understand

The truth is, that the way Will and Jada’s relationship works is beyond our understanding. We can sit and speculate from the outside but who really knows what goes on behind closed doors? As of right now, both claim that they are happy with their arrangement and that they still care for each other. Perhaps the main takeaway here is that they should stop over-broadcasting every detail of their relationship to all these people who don’t want to hear it.