Jada Pinkett Smith Denies Open Marriage, Says She and Will 'Still Figuring Out' Relationship (Exclusive)

“A lot has happened in the last two years, so we’ve been doing really hard work together,” Jada tells PEOPLE of their marriage

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s relationship is still ongoing.

“We’re still figuring it out,” Jada tells PEOPLE of their 25-year marriage in this week’s issue. “A lot has happened. The thing about relationships is that they are always changing. It’s relationships, it’s an organism. That’s its own thing. It is constantly moving and constantly moving. A lot has happened in the last two years, so we’ve been working really hard together.” In 2016, Jada revealed hers Talk about the red table series that she had a relationship with R&B singer August Alsin while she was separated from Will.

As the actress, 52, tells PEOPLE, neither she nor Will, 55, have ever had an affair — nor are they in an open relationship.

“We eliminated the possibility of betrayal,” says Jada, whose new memoir Worthy comes out on Tuesday. “It’s like, ‘Let’s talk about it. Let’s work it out together. Let’s be in partnership. Let’s not keep each other in the dark.’ ”

“I think what made it confusing was that as time went on, there were different stages in my marriage where Will and I decided we weren’t together,” Jada continues. “We didn’t tell the public where I was actually thinking about a divorce, a separation. There were a few instances like that where we went off and lived our separate lives. So I think within that people were able to think, ‘Oh, they must be in an open relationship.'”

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Will and Jada Pinkett Smith in Los Angeles on November 30, 2022.

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Jada Pinkett Smith says she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016: We were ‘exhausted from trying’

In an interview with Today on Wednesday, Jada revealed to Hoda Kotb that she and Will have been separated for seven years. Jada confirmed that it wasn’t a “divorce on paper,” as Kotb put it, but “by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted trying.”

“I think we both of them are somehow still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” Kotbu said.

The Run it the actress also said she “promised that there would never be a reason for us to divorce,” explaining, “We’re going to work on… whatever.”

Jada Pinkett Smith on the cover of PEOPLE.

Obidigbo Nzeribe

And as she told PEOPLE in this week’s issue, “What we do know is that in this life we ​​are what we have.”

“I’ll never forget, I said it Talk about the red table. People weren’t really privy to what was going on in our relationship at the time, but I said, ‘You could be on one side of this house with somebody, and I could be on the other side of this house with somebody, but let’s be together in this house”. That’s what we’re going to do,” says Jada. “And that’s exactly what it is. It’s like we just have this amazing connection with each other.”

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith Lived ‘Separate Lives’ Ahead of 2022 Oscars: Book Excerpt (Exclusive)

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

“And I tell him all the time. I say, ‘If you think for one minute that I’m going to give up the right to pull that plug… when your tail is in that hospital and it’s a hundred years old, I’m pulling that plug,'” she continues. . “No one else is going to get there. I worked hard to get that plug out. Pull it. It’s my decision.”

“But we just got a deep love for each other and we’re going to figure out what that looks like for us. And that’s what’s most important,” adds Jada. “Trust me, it’s not for the faint of heart. I’ll tell you right now, it’s not for the faint of heart. But I believe that’s why Will and I are still married.”

For more from Jada Pinkett Smith, pick up the latest issue PEOPLEon newsstands on Friday.

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Source: HIS Education