Jada Pinkett Smith has been an open book when it comes to her life and relationships, specifically her marriage to husband Will Smith via her show, ‘Red Table Talk.’
Wednesday’s episode featuring Gwyneth Paltrow was no different as the women discussed the challenges of maintaining a good sex life as well as communicating personal needs to your partner.
“It’s hard,” Jada said. “The thing Will and I talk about a lot is the journey. We started in this at a very young age, you know, 22 years old. That’s why the accountability part really hit for me because I think you expect your partner to know [what you need], especially when it comes to sex. It’s like, ‘Well, if you love me, you should know. If you love me, you should read my mind.’ That’s a huge pitfall.”
Jada, who has been married to Will for 23 years, agreed with Gwyneth when she said a person can feel “crushed” when their partner isn’t able to understand what’s inside their head.
“You tell me what you need. Tell me what you want, and on top of it, I know that I have to be accountable to do the same…I really try. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s deeply healthy, and I think around sex, because it’s something that we don’t talk about and there’s so much fantasy around it,” Jada said.
We all know that Will and Jada’s marriage has been anything but traditional. In July 2020, while sitting at that same Red Table, Jada revealed that she and Will had temporarily separated a few years back and confirmed her affair with August Alsina, who had publicly blasted their hidden relationship.
Then in a September interview with GQ magazine, Will shared that he had also engaged in other sexual relationships.
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage,” Will told GQ. “Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship. So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
