Jada Pinkett Smith revealed Will Smith hadn’t referred to her as his “wife” in the years proceeding his now-infamous Oscars slap.
Moments after the “King Richard” star attacked Chris Rock at the March 2022 awards show, he shouted from his seat, “Keep my wife’s name out your f–king mouth!”
But the “Girls Trip” star is now admitting to NBC in a pre-taped interview set to air Friday night that her estranged husband saying “my wife” left her just as surprised as the incident itself.
“First of all, I’m really shocked, because mind you, I’m not there. We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” she told “Today” co-anchor Hoda Kotb.
“I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know what’s going on.”
The admission comes after Pinkett Smith, 52, revealed that she and the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star, 55, have been quietly separated for seven years.
“We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,” she told People earlier this week. “We just got deep love for each other, and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”
In 2020, news broke that the “Nutty Professor” actress and singer August Alsina had an “entanglement,” which prompted Pinkett Smith to admit that she and Smith had privately separated over the tryst.
It appeared the couple made amends, as they went on to discuss their “open marriage” and devotion to each other; however, she revealed on Wednesday that they are still living separately.
As for why the estranged couple haven’t publicly revealed this news until now, Pinkett Smith said they weren’t “ready yet.”
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“Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership. … In regards to, how do we present that to people? We hadn’t figured that out,” she explained.
“The View” co-host Ana Navarro, however, called the admission a “cash grab” because it’s coming just before Pinkett Smith releases her new memoir, “Worthy.”
“I think she’s having a relationship with her bank account because every time she needs to increase the ratings of the ‘Red Table [Talk]’, every time she needs to sell books, she drops these bombshells,” Navarro said on Wednesday.
“I find it unseemly, and I will tell you this, ‘Be careful of anybody who pretends to have a perfect marriage.’”
Navarro’s co-host Sunny Hostin disagreed, pointing out that telling all is what an author does in a memoir.
“I think it’s a very brave thing to do, a very courageous thing to do,” the lawyer said. “I think it has less to do with money. She has plenty of money.”
