Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Secretly Broke Up in 2016

Are Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith still together?

Speaking to People, Jada dropped the bombshell that she and Will have been separated for seven years, since 2016 — information also contained in her new memoir, Worthy.

Jada also shared that she and Will, who have been married since 1997, are still navigating their relationship and figuring out where they stand as a couple today.

“We’re still figuring it out,” Jada told the publication.

“We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us,” she continued.

Speaking on The Today Show, Jada revealed “a lot of things” factored into their separation.

“Why it fractured, that’s a lot of things. I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she explained.

The news of the Hollywood couple’s longtime separation has come as a shock to many, especially in the wake of Will’s controversy at the 2022 Academy Awards, where he infamously slapped host Chris Rock following a negative comment the comedian made about Jada.

“Keep my wife’s name out of your f—ing mouth,” Will told Chris during the very public altercation.

“I thought, ‘This is a skit.’ I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him.’ It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit,” Jada told People, recalling she told herself she was “going to be by his side, but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.”

READ MORE: Was Will Smith and Chris Rock’s Oscars Altercation Staged?

Outside of her relationship with Will, Jada is currently focused on her kids: Jaden, Willow and Trey.

“My children, they’re little gurus. They’ve taught me a deep sense of self-acceptance,” Jada told People.

“They love every part of me. The level of love, unconditional love that they have for me and their dad. And it’s one thing to want to be the person that gives that unconditional love. And then there’s, to be the recipient of that,” she shared.