Jada Pinkett Smith once recalled feeling "forced" to get married to Will Smith.
She shared this recollection in a 2018 episode of Red Table Talk. In it, Jada revealed she initially had reservations about marrying the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star.
On her widely-watched Facebook Watch talk show, Red Table Talk, Jada candidly shared her initial reluctance to tie the knot with Will. With her husband on the same episode, she openly stated, “I really didn't wanna get married,” particularly when she discovered she was pregnant with their son, Jaden, now 23.
Interrupting her, Will humorously recalled, "We only got married because Gammy [Pinkett Smith's mom Adrienne Banfield-Norris] was crying." Further unfolding the story, Jada elaborated, "It was almost as if Gammy was like, ‘You have to get married, so let’s talk about the wedding.’”
As fans tried to piece the narrative together, the then-50-year-old star of The Matrix expressed the pressure she felt back then. Being a young, budding actress and expecting a child put her in a tight spot. Emotionally, she recollected, "I was under so much pressure… I was just, like, pregnant and I just didn’t know what to do. But I just knew, I never wanted to be married.”
Adding another layer to the story, Banfield-Norris shared her perspective, indicating a distinction between Jada’s stance on marriage and her views on a wedding. She mentioned, “I remember feeling very strongly and wanting you guys to be married… I remember the rejection of the idea of a wedding but not of a marriage.”
The wedding, in retrospect, seemed to have its share of hurdles. Banfield-Norris reminisced, “The wedding was horrible… It was a mess. Jada was sick, she was very unpleasant … She didn’t cooperate with anything.” Jada confirmed the sentiment, divulging, “And I was so upset that I had to have a wedding. I was so p****d I went crying down the freaking aisle. I cried the whole way down the aisle.”
The Girls Trip actor added: "I didn’t want to get married and now Gammy’s gone running to Will, crying about how I don’t want to have a wedding. Now I’m being forced to have a wedding when really I just wanted it to be the two of us [her and Will] on a mountain, because this is serious business.”
In more recent news, Jada revealed recently that she and Will have been secretly separated since 2016.
According to Jada, she and Will, 55, have been on separate paths since 2016. This means that at the time of the dramatic 2022 Oscars incident, where Will confronted comedian Chris Rock for a joke about Jada's shaved head, they were living separately.