But in a shocking revelation, the 52-year-old actress has admitted they don’t actually share their lives at all and haven’t for a very long time.
During an interview with the US Today show ahead of the release of her revealing new memoir, Worthy, Pinkett Smith explained that she and the Independence Day star, 55, quietly split seven years ago. While they continued to present a united front in interviews and while walking red carpets and attending awards shows, they “live separately”.
“By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” she said. “I think we were both kind of still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”
When asked by journalist Hoda Kotb about why they haven’t spoken out about their split before now, Pinkett Smith explains they weren’t “ready yet”.
“In regards to, how do we present that to people? We hadn’t figured that out,” Pinkett Smith explained.
Despite the incredibly long length of their estrangement, The Equalizer actress says there are no plans for the pair to make it legal.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she says. “We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”
The pair tied the knot on New Year’s Eve in 1997. At the time, Pinkett Smith was three months pregnant with their first child. They share son Jaden, 25, and daughter Willow, 22. Smith is also the father of son Trey, 30, with ex-wife Sheree Zampino.
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