Jada Pinkett Smith says pandemic has made her realise she ‘doesn’t know Will at all’

‘You create these stories in your head and that is your idea of your partner,’ Pinkett Smith says

Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about how her relationship with Will Smith has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, stating that she feels she doesn’t know her husband “at all”.

On Tuesday 29 April, the latest episode of Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk series was released on Facebook Watch.

In the video, the actor was joined by her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris and daughter Willow Smith, in addition to guests including Pastor John Gray and his wife Aventer Gray, to speak about how relationships have been impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak.

After hearing Mr and Mrs Gray speak via video chat about how their relationship has been affected, Pinkett Smith revealed how the current climate has helped her gain a greater understanding of her 23-year marriage.

“I have to be honest. I think one of the things that I’ve realised is that I don’t know Will at all,” Pinkett Smith said.

“I feel like there’s a layer that you get to, life gets busy and you create these stories in your head and then you hold onto these stories and that is your idea of your partner, but that’s not who your partner is.”

Pinkett Smith continued, explaining that she is trying to “dissolve” the “stories” she has “built” around her partner.

“So going through the process of having to dissolve all of those stories and all the ideas of Will that I’ve built around those stories, the thing that Will and I are learning to do is be friends, because you get into all of these ideas of what an intimate relationship is supposed to look like, what marriage is supposed to be.”

The Gotham actor stated that she and her husband are both “in the process” of learning to love themselves while also “building a friendship along the way”.

“Let me tell you, that’s been something to be married to somebody 20-some odd years and then realise I don’t know you and you don’t know me but also realising too there’s an aspect of yourself you don’t know either.”

The celebrity couple met in 1994 when Pinkett Smith auditioned for a role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, on which Smith was the titular star.

They married in 1997 and have two children together — 21-year-old Jaden and 19-year-old Willow.

Smith also has an elder son, 27-year-old Trey, from his first marriage to Sheree Zampino.