Jada Pinkett Smith And Will Smith have kept some details of their marriage a bit of a mystery, while other parts have played out in the press.
Last year, Smith addressed the longtime rumours to confirm that the pair don’t practice monogamy, in an interview for GQ.
It’s certainly not the first time the couple have spoken about their open marriage. In 2020, they confronted rumours that Pinkett Smith had an affair with American singer-songwriter August Alsina.
For several years, it had been speculated that the actress and singer had a relationship that happened concurrently to Pinkett’s Smith’s marriage to 53-year-old actor Smith.
It is believed the actress met Alsina in 2015, when the mother-of-two went to support her children, Jaden and Willow, during their performance at Wireless Festival in London.
After years of denying rumours of a romantic relationship, Alsina opened up about his romance with the 50-year-old actress, revealing that he has a ‘ton of love’ for Pinkett Smith.
In response to the reports, the actress has addressed chatter of what she describes as her ‘entanglement’ with Alsina, during a public conversation with Smith. The married couple clarified that they had previously separated and Pinkett Smith explained her relationship with Alsina ultimately made her relationship with her husband stronger than ever.
‘One thing I’ll say about you and I, is that there have never been any secrets . . . any relationship, in trying to get to a deeper understanding of love is going to be forged in the fire,’ she told Smith on her Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk, in 2020.
Here’s a timles of everything that’s been said about the August Alsina ‘entanglement affair’…
April 2022, August Alsina Comments On ‘Entanglement’ Affair After Will Smith’s Oscars slap, Promising To Write Tell-All Memoir
In case you missed it (although, really?) Will Smith stormed the stage at the 2022 Oscars and appeared to strike comedian Chris Rock in the face, after the latter made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaven head.
This comes after Jada previously spoke about her experience of alopecia – an autoimmune disorder causing hair loss.
And now, in the aftermath of the Academy Awards drama, August Alsina has revealed that he sings about his affair with Smith in his track ‘Shake the World’.
‘Well, of course some s**t is bound to go down when you tangled up with the world’s favourite,’ he was heard singing in a teaser on Monday, which he shared via his Instagram page.
Alsina is also reportedly set to write a tell-all book that will go into depth about their sex life.
A source claimed to The Sun: ‘August is getting ready to sign a big money book deal which will detail his romantic liaisons with Jada.
‘He has always maintained that Will gave him permission to sleep with Jada, something they have publicly denied.’
The source continued: ‘August will go into detail about his time with Jada and will also speak about how he spent time living in homes owned by Will when he was away filming.’
‘There are several publishers bidding for the books and August is lining up the best deal.
‘He knows there are a lot of people fascinated by his story and is happy to tell it.’
Jada Pinkett Smith jokes about entanglements in her and Will Smith’s marriage
While on the red carpet at the 2022 SAG Awards in Santa Monica, California in Februaey 2022 the couple were interviewed by Orange Is the New Black actor and E! News host Laverne Cox. During their discussion, Cox told the paid: ‘We can’t wait for more Red Table Talk and more, more entanglements’.
Cox was seemingly referring to when Pinket Smith spoke about the relationship she’d had with R&B singer August Alsina while speaking to her husband on her Red Table Talk Facebook show in 2020. During the pair’s televised discussion, Smith described the situation as an ‘entanglement’.
In response to Cox’s comment, the married couple laughed. ‘No more of those!’ joked the Matrix actor.
Cox then added: ‘No more entanglements! I love you, girl. I’m just kidding. I’m just joshing you.’
Will Smith reveals he and Jada Pinkett Smith have an open marriage
Smith made the assertion during an interview with GQ in September 2021.
‘Jada never believed in conventional marriage… Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship,’ the Men In Black actor, who has been married to Pinkett Smith since 1997, told the magazine.
‘We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison.’
Smith also revealed a previous fantasy of having a ‘harem’ of famous girlfriends. He discussed the idea with intimacy coach Michaela Boehm, but never went ahead with the idea.
He planned for the group to include Halle Berry and Misty Copeland, and even thought about contacting the women.
‘I don’t know where I saw it or some s*** as a teenager, but the idea of travelling with 20 women that I loved and took care of and all of that, it seemed like a really great idea.
‘And then, after we played it out a little bit, I was like, “That would be horrific. That would be horrific. I was like, “Can you imagine how miserable?”‘
Jada Pinkett Smith admits to relationship with August Alsina
In July 2020 the actress shed some light on the ongoing rumours during an episode of her show Red Table Talk where she was joined by Smith.
‘One of the reasons I wanted to come to the table, the media, the headlines, we specifically never said anything,’ the actor stated. ‘We were purposely never saying anything. We specifically never said anything. Coming to the table, we just felt like it got to the point where you gotta say something.’
Pinkett Smith added that she considers the issue ‘private’ and that it was a ‘very personal journey that became very public’.
‘Four and a half years ago… I started a friendship with August and we actually became really, really good friends,’ she explained. ‘And it all started with him just needing some help, me wanting to help his health, his mental state.’
Alsina has suffered a lot from his health over the years, including eye and liver disease, temporarily losing the ability to walk and a past addiction to pain medication Percocet.
The mother-of-two continued, saying that she met Alsina through her son, Jaden, and that she and her husband were going through a ‘very difficult time’ when she the pair met.
‘I was done with you,’ the Pursuit of Happyness star told his wife.
‘We broke up,’ Pinkett Smith clarified, saying: ‘We decided that we were going to separate for a period of time.’
The actress said that she did get into a relationship with Alsina but that she didn’t view their bond as a ‘transgression at all’.
‘Through that particular journey, I learned so much about myself and was able to really confront a lot of emotional immaturity, emotional insecurity and I was really able to do some really deep healing,’ Pinkett Smith admitted.
‘And as I came through and started to realise certain things about you and I, he decided to break all communication with me which was totally understandable. And I let that be and hadn’t talked to him since so it is a little weird that all this stuff is coming out now since this was several [years ago],’ she told her husband.
Pinkett Smith noted that she and Will are now at a place of ‘unconditional love’.
The acting couple married in December 1997 and share two children together: son Jaden, 22, and daughter Willow, 19.
August Alsina claims Will Smith gave him his ‘blessing’ to have relationship with Jada
During an interview with YouTube host Angela Yee in June 2020, Alsina opened up about his relationship with Pinkett Smith.
‘I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership … he gave me his blessing,’ the 27-year-old told Yee.
‘And I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really, deeply loved and have a ton of love for her (Jada). I devoted myself to it. I gave my full self to it. So much so that I can die right now, and be OK knowing that I fully gave myself to somebody … Some people never get that in this lifetime.’
The singer added that his decision to walk away from the relationship ‘butchered’ him.
‘It pushed me into being another person … It broke me down … It probably will be the hardest thing I ever had to experience in this lifetime,’ he added.
Rumours that the pair were an item have circulated the internet for years, especially after the singer released his 2019 track ‘Nunya’.
The song includes the lyrics: ‘You got me feeling like it was an act, you’re just an actress/Putting on a show ’cause you don’t want the world to know.
The song’s official video also featured a screenshot of a text message from a love interest named ‘Koren’, which is Jada’s middle name. Alsina previously denied the song was about his former partner.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith suggest they are in an open relationship
For years, speculation and rumours have been rife over the state of the couple’s marriage.
Pinkett Smith fuelled this speculation in 2015 when she told radio presenter Howard Stern that she trusts her husband to do the right thing.
She said: ‘I’m not his watcher. He’s a grown man … I trust that Will is is a man with integrity. He’s got all the freedom in the world … and as long as Will can look himself in the mirror and be OK? I’m good.
‘I’m not the kind of woman that believes that a man’s not gonna be attracted to other women … It’s just not realistic,’ she added. ‘And just because your man is attracted to another woman doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. And it doesn’t mean he’s gonna act on it.
‘If your man can’t really see another woman’s beauty, how the hell is he gonna see yours? … You have got to be human and be who you are.’
Two year prior, she echoed these sentiments during an interview with HuffPost Live, when she stated that her husband ‘is his own man’ and ‘can do whatever’ he wants.
She later clarified her comments on Facebook, writing: ‘Do we believe loving someone means owning them? Do we believe that ownership is the reason someone should “behave”?’
‘Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so [sic],’ Pinkett Smith continued, referring to her relationship as a ‘grown’ one as opposed to ‘open relationship’.
In 2005, Smith told the Daily Mail that he and his wife were open about being sexually attracted to other people.
‘If it came down to it, then one can say to the other, “Look, I need to have sex with somebody,”’ he said. ‘”I’m not going to if you don’t approve of it — but please approve of it”.
