This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking her truth.
During an appearance on a prime-time special for “Today,” the actress addressed rumors of her husband Will Smith’s sexuality and how she previously battled suicidal thoughts.
The “Girl’s Trip” star candidly spoke out about her 26-year marriage with “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” actor and debunked rumors that swirled around their relationship.
The 52-year-old actress addressed rumors of her husband Will Smith’s sexuality and how she previously battled suicidal thoughts. (Getty Images)
Pinkett Smith, 52, clarified whether the couple were ever swingers or had an open marriage or whether her husband was secretly gay.
“I mean, a million things were out there,” Pinkett Smith told host Hoda Kotb.
“No. You know, that’s part of it. I would say that none of that’s true. I definitely can understand why there’d be misunderstandings,” she added, “but none of it’s true.”
Earlier this week the “Worthy” author dropped another bombshell regarding her relationship with her husband Smith.
Pinkett Smith recently revealed that she and Will Smith separated in 2016. (Photo by Ron Wolfson/WireImage)
She said the couple have not been together for over seven years — but they appear as husband and wife for public appearances.
“We live separately,” Pinkett Smith admitted.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she said.
Splitting in 2016, Pinkett Smith said she and Smith “were just exhausted with trying” to stay together. “I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
The actress suggested that “not being ready” to discuss the split publicly, as well as “still trying to figure out between the two of us, how to be in partnership” were reasons to harbor the secret. They even kept it quiet through a period of intense scrutiny, when the actress was accused of cheating on Smith with family friend August Alsina. In 2021, Pinkett Smith reluctantly confirmed her relationship with Alsina in a conversation with Smith on her now-defunct show “Red Table Talk.”
August Alsina and Jada Pinkett Smith pose on the red carpet together at the 2017 BET Awards. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
“I got into a different kind of ‘entanglement’ with August,” the actress revealed, while also admitting she and Smith were separated at the time. She further clarified, “It was a relationship, absolutely.”
JADA PINKETT SMITH SAYS CHRIS ROCK ASKED HER OUT DURING PREVIOUS WILL SMITH DIVORCE RUMORS
This also means the couple were separated during Smith’s infamous incident at the Academy Awards in 2022. Smith famously stormed the Oscar stage, slapping Chris Rock across the face after the comedian made a joke referencing Pinkett Smith’s bald head. She suffers from alopecia.
Upon sitting down, Smith yelled at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth.”
“These kinds of moments can do two things. They can amplify love, or they can really make you bitter, angry, resentful,” Pinkett Smith continued to tell Kotb of the Oscars slap. “We’ve chosen to really look at this moment and heal.”
Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith had been separated for over six years when the Oscars slap happened. (Getty Images)
The “Red Table Talk” host additionally shared that she has gone through a lot of healing during tumultuous times in her life.
Pinkett Smith confessed that she was struggling with deep, dark thoughts in her 40s and created a suicide plan.
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“I’d been struggling with depression for a long time. It got really unbearable,” she explained to Kotb.
“You start to think that everybody’s better without you.”
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Pinkett Smith revealed her suicide plan was to end her life by driving off a cliff along Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. (Amy Sussman/WireImage)
Pinkett Smith revealed her suicide plan was to end her life by driving off a cliff along Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.
“As morbid as it might sound, when I would come up with a plan, it made me feel like, ‘OK, you got a plan, so you’re good.’”
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To cope with her depression, she sought an unconventional treatment in the form of Ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic that is mostly illegal in the U.S. Pinkett Smith shared that the remedy helped her finally feel free as though the “veil had been lifted.”
Fox News Digital’s Caroline Thayer contributed to this report.
