Jada Pinkett Smith says she was stunned when Will Smith called her his 'wife' in Oscars outburst
Topics: Celebrity, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith
Jess Hardiman
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@jadapinkettsmith/ABC
Topics: Celebrity, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith has admitted she felt 'really shocked' when Will called her his ‘wife’ during THAT infamous Oscars outburst, following the bombshell news that they’ve actually been separated for years.
Jada married Will back in 1997, going on to have two children – Jaden and Willow – with Will, who also has a son from a previous relationship, 30-year-old Trey.
However, in a new interview with People, she revealed that she and Will have actually been secretly separated for years.
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"We’re still figuring it out," Jada explained.
"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."
In another interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb, she divulged further about the nature of their relationship, saying she felt taken aback when Will described her as his ‘wife’ as he defended her at the 2022 Oscars – when comedian Chris Rock made a joke about her shaven head.
Will leapt onto the stage and laid a slap across Chris’ face, before returning to his seat and shouting up to him: “Keep my wife's name out of your f*cking mouth.”
Jada, who remained seated throughout the incident, could be seen rolling her eyes as Chris compared her to ‘G.I. Jane’ - the titular character from the 1997 film in which actor Demi Moore sported a similar look.
“I did that eye roll not so much for me – and I think this is really important – but the fact that there could be a jab at alopecia,” she told Kotb.
Jada continued to recall just how stunned she felt by the whole exchange, saying: “What is going on? Now, first of all, I'm really shocked because, mind you, I'm not there.
“We haven't called each other husband and wife in a long time. I'm like, what is going on right now?”
She said she felt ‘really worried for Will’, simply because she didn’t know what was going on.
After the incident, Chris told Jada that he meant her ‘no harm’ with the joke.
She went on: “I’m just out of it, because I was really worried about Will. And Will’s still talking, because now he’s mad because Chris is talking to me. And I go, ‘Chris, this is about some old s**t’.
Jada added: “And I couldn’t really take in his apology.”