Though the actors were living completely separate lives for seven years, they were not ready to publicly confirm the news before, she confessed to NBC.
By the time they separated she said that they were "exhausted with trying".
The pair still live separately, but do not plan on divorcing.
Pinkett Smith, 52, told NBC she had promised herself that she and Smith, 55, would never get a divorce and said she has not been able to break that promise.
"I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be," she said. The interview came ahead of the release of Pinkett Smith's memoir, Worthy, next week.
The couple made headlines last year when Smith stormed the stage at the Oscars and slapped host Chris Rock, yelling "keep my wife's name out of your [expletive] mouth".
The incident came after Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith being bald. The actress suffers from alopecia, a condition which causes hair loss.
In a separate interview, Pinkett Smith told People she initially thought it was part of a planned joke.
"It wasn't until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realised it wasn't a skit."
She said: "I'm going to be by his side but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself."
There was speculation about the couple's marriage in 2020 when the pair went on Pinkett Smith's Facebook show Red Table Talk and discussed Pinkett Smith's "entanglement" with artist August Alsina.
In the 18 months since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars over a joke made about his wife’s shaved head, Jada Pinkett Smith has said very little about the incident—until now. Ahead of her upcoming memoir, Worthy, out October 17, Pinkett Smith revealed to People that she and her husband had been separated for six years prior to the 2022 Oscars.
“We’re still figuring it out,” Pinkett Smith said of their marriage. “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 a separate clip from her upcoming sit-down with Hoda Kotb, Jada’s Story—An NBC News Special, which airs on October 13, Pinkett Smith elaborated on her and Smith’s dynamic. “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she said. But she also confirmed: “We live separately.”
Pinkett Smith told People that before her husband slapped Rock, “I thought, This is a skit. I was like, There’s no way that Will hit him. It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.” Her first words to Smith once they were alone were, “Are you okay?”
In July 2020, singer August Alsina revealed that he had been romantically involved with Pinkett Smith, something she confirmed during an episode with her husband on “Red Table Talk.”
“I got into an entanglement with August,” Pinkett Smith said at the time, explaining then that the superstar couple “were going through a very difficult time” when it occurred.
Then there was the Oscars slap.
During the 2022 Academy Awards, Smith stormed the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith being bald. She suffers from alopecia, which has caused her hair loss.
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