Jada Pinkett Smith Clarifies Why She & Will Smith Didn't Announce Their Separation Until Now, Shocks Hoda Kotb with Their Ultimate Plan

Jada Pinkett Smith is offering up some clarification about her separation from her husband Will Smith in a new interview on the Today show with Hoda Kotb.

If you didn’t see, the 52-year-old actress made the revelation that she’s been separated from Will, who she’s been married to since 1997, for seven years. In that time, they’d never announced their separation and they’d actually attended numerous events together during that time.

Keep reading to find out more…

Hoda said to Jada during the live interview, “One thing people were still really confused about was…’They’ve been divorced in theory but not on paper. They were not together, but kinda pretended they were together.’ I had trouble articulating exactly why that was. So, now that you’ve had more time…why was that?”

“We needed time to get solidified. Because at the end of the day, Will and I really love each other. We had to really figure out what we wanted before we went into the world to say what was going on. Because we were in this really fragile place. And so now, we’re just super solid. And so now, I can actually talk about what the journey has been,” Jada responded.

Hoda then asked Jada what would happen if either of them found another “great love.”

“There’s no finding another great love, and I think that’s the point. It’s like we are in a place now that we are in a deep, healing space. And we are really concentrating on healing the relationship between us,” she said.

“There’s no divorce on paper. We really have been working hard,” Jada said, which surprised Hoda, as she thought they were split up for good. Jada then responded, “That’s the whole thing. We are working very hard at bringing our relationship together. Back to a life partnership.” See Hoda‘s shocked face below.

“Here’s the thing about husband-wife marriage for me, for my healing process. I came into that with very specific ideas that were blocks to me seeing Will as who he is. He can’t be this perfect, ideal guy husband. I have to be able to accept him for the human that he is, (and) he accepts me for the human that I am. And we want to love each other there,” Jada shared.

Be sure to see Will Smith‘s reaction to Jada‘s memoir and some of the biggest revelations from her so far.