Will Smith claims key to successful marriage is 'not quitting' no matter how 'gruelling and excruciating' it gets

'We've been asking ourselves [what's the secret] and at the end of the day it's just not quitting'

The couple have two teenage children together (VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images)

Will Smith claims the key to his happy marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith is “just not quitting”, despite it sometimes being “difficult, gruelling and excruciating”.

Will spoke to Entertainment Tonight about his eighteen-year marriage, which is generally considered a long time in Hollywood.

“We’ve been married [almost] 20 years and we’ve been asking ourselves [what’s the secret] and really at the end of the day it’s just not quitting.

“You can’t expect it to be easy, it’s like our marriage was the most difficult, gruelling, excruciating thing that we have ever taken on in our lives. And you know, we’re just not quitters.”

The actor couple married in 1997 and have two children together, Jaden, aged 17 and Willow, aged 15.

When asked if he had any marriage advice, the 47-year-old said: “If there is a secret I would say it's that we never went into working on our relationship. We only ever worked on ourselves individually, and then presented ourselves to one another better than we were previously.”

Earlier this year, Jada, 44, answered claims the couple have an ‘open marriage’, saying Will has “all the freedom in the world, and as long as Will can look himself in the mirror and be OK, I’m good.”

Rumours over the state of the couple’s marriage began to circulate after Jada said in a 2013 interview the couple both do “whatever we want”.