Source: Gregg DeGuire / Getty
Will Smith recently opened about how he and Jada Pinkett Smith navigated their definition of marriage in a new tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
For a long time, the public has known that Will and Jada have an “unconventional” and “untraditional” marriage by others’ standards. Despite learning about Jada’s “entanglement” with singer August Alsina and various other tidbits of information about the couple’s marital dynamic, Oprah pointed that onlookers “never actually understood” whether it was “months or years” that Will and Jada were separated.
In response, the “King Richard” star told Oprah, “Ya know, it’s really funny — we never actually like officially separated.”
Will said that back in 2011, he and Jada’s marriage changed course after his wife disliked her 40th birthday party that he’d planned for three years. Following a volatile fight over the matter, the couple talked very candidly about the fact that they couldn’t rely on the other person to fulfill their individual happiness, according to PEOPLE.
“We realized that it was a fantasy illusion that we could make each other happy,” Smith said of he and Jada’s discussion. “We agreed that she had to make herself happy and I had to make myself happy. Then we were going to present ourselves back to the relationship already happy—versus demanding that the other person fill our empty cup.”
“We just decided, ‘You have to figure out how to be happy,'” he noted.
Will explained that things were slightly more “contentious” on his end. At one point, he says he told Jada to “‘Go figure out if you can be happy and prove to me it’s even possible.'”
“I’m gonna do me and you do you,” he said of his feelings then.
When Oprah asked if that also meant the two could have other sexual partners outside each other within the limits of their marriage, Will said that for him and Jada, everything isn’t all about sex.
“We talk about everything,” the actor said of his relationship with his wife. “I think the difficulty that people have and difficulty in discussing it is people only think in terms of sex.”
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“People are trying to put something on it, ‘Will and Jada — what they doing with other people?'” he mentioned. “Will and Jada ain’t really doing too much of nothin.'”
“Will and Jada are on a spiritual journey to cleanse the poisonous, unloving parts of our hearts. And we’re doing it together in this lifetime no matter what,” he noted.
“But the goal is not a sexual goal. It’s spiritual. We are going to love each other no matter what,” Will further emphasized, before adding, “Since we are talking about it, Oprah, let’s just talk about it: No woman can make me happy, so I don’t need to look for one to try and make me happy. No man can make Jada happy, so she don’t need to go look for one to make her happy. We both know that. There is no person that will fill your hole.”
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The actor’s chat with Oprah serves as a part of him preparing for the Nov. 9 release of his memoir, “Will.” We assume it’ll be an interesting read in light of the details spilled as of late, giving us a closer look into Will’s personal life. Will you be snagging a copy?
