Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, supposedly one of Hollywood’s rock solid marriages, appears to be on the rocks. The couple is reportedly separating after nearly 14 years of marriage.
But the news was first reported by InTouch Weekly, which has proved not to be the most reliable source of celebrity gossip over time.
The Hollywood dream couple met when Pinkett auditioned for a role on Smith’s television show, “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” in 1995. They were married Dec. 31st, 1997.
“We were together for two years before she even laughed at something I said!” Will Smith said of their relationship.
“She thinks I’m hilarious now, it just took her some time to work into it, but we connected intellectually … We connected intellectually and worked into the comedic side.”
Pinkett added about their blossoming relationship in a 2007 interview: “After we had known each other for many years, we went out for dinner one night with mutual friends and I saw that he had grown from this lanky kid to this really responsible man.”
“We started courting each other and our friendship turned into romance.”
Their two children, budding pop stars Jaden Smith and Willow Smith have been groomed by the couple for show business careers.
After a previous marriage, which yielded a son, Trey, ended in divorce in 1995, Will Smith said divorce was no longer an option.
“What I found is divorce just can’t be an option. It’s really that simple. And I think that’s the problem with L.A. – there are so many options,” he said in a 2008 interview.
“So a huge part of the success for [Jada] and I is that we just removed the other options.”
It looks like options got the better of them. Who cheated on whom?
Will once said they had an open marriage.
“Our perspective is, you don’t avoid what’s natural. You’re going to be attracted to people. In our marriage vows, we didn’t say ‘forsaking all others.’ The vow that we made was that you will never hear that I did something after the fact.
“If it came down to it, then one spouse can say to the other, ‘Look, I need to have sex with somebody. I’m not going to if you don’t approve of it – but please approve of it.’”
