Will Smith hit back at Rebel Wilson’s jibes about his marriage as he insisted there has ‘never been infidelity’ in his relationship with Jada Pinkett Smith.
During Sunday night’s BAFTAs ceremony, the couple found themselves the butt of a joke after Will scooped Best Actor for his role in King Richard – he wasn’t there to collect the gong as he was attending the Critics’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles.
BAFTAs host Rebel, 41, quipped on stage: ‘I thought his best performance over the past year was being OK with all his wife’s boyfriends!’
Speaking afterwards, Will insisted that there has ‘never been infidelity’, despite Jada admitting in 2020 that she had an ‘entanglement’ with singer August Alsina.
Will said: ‘There’s never been infidelity in our marriage. Jada and I talk about everything, and we have never surprised one another with anything ever.
Will – who has son Jaden, 23, and daughter Willow, 21, with Jada – added that he doesn’t care if people speculate about his marriage and instead he encourages the ‘chatter’ in the hope it will spark meaningful debate.
He told Gayle King on CBS Sunday Morning: ‘I have decided that chatter about my life can be of a benefit to people.
‘Chatter is the first stage to having a real conversation and to be able to truly explore if some of the things in your heart are loving or poisonous.’
The couple’s marriage has hit the headlines in recent years, particularly when Jada discussed her relationship with August.
August had appeared on The Breakfast Club and claimed that he was in a relationship with the actress and had her husband’s ‘blessing.’
Addressing the claims a month later, Jada said on her Red Table Talk show: ‘Four and a half years ago… I started a friendship with August. We actually became really, really good friends.
‘It all started with him just needing some help, me wanting to help his health, his mental state.
‘From there as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August,’ she explained, later clarifying, ‘It was a relationship, absolutely.’
She added: ‘I was in a lot of pain, and I was very broken. Now in the process of that relationship, I definitely realized that you can’t find happiness outside of yourself.’
In September, the Aladdin star admitted his wife wasn’t ‘the only one engaging in other sexual relationships’ outside of their marriage.
However, he declined to go into detail, particularly because his mindset has changed in recent years.
He explained: ‘It may seem hard to believe, but I would lose sleep over not giving you the answer that I know you could use.
‘I want to help you, I want you to succeed, I want you to have a headline.
‘But by the same token, I don’t want to deal with the backlash of that in the world. To say I don’t want to talk about that three years ago would have been f****** excruciating for me.’
Will admitted the 50-year-old actress never ‘believed in conventional marriage’ so they spent a long time figuring out their relationship boundaries.
He said: ‘Jada never believed in conventional marriage.… Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship.
‘So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.’
But the Men in Black star admitted their approach is not for everyone.
He said: ‘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.
‘And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.’
Source: Daily Mail