As Will Smith continues to promote his memoir, “Will,” the actor tells us more about his marriage that is seemingly nontraditional.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Apple TV’s “The Oprah Conversation,” Winfrey tried to get an understanding on if the two were in an open relationship.
The question about the duration of when the two separation came about, as Winfrey tried to determine just how long they were separated.
Winfrey stated that people “never actually understood” the details of their separation and if it was “months or years.”
Will replied and said, “Ya know… It’s really funny… We didn’t… We never actually like officially separated,” seemingly referring to be legal definition of being separated.
He mentioned that he spent three years planning Jada’s 40th birthday party in 2011 and she didn’t enjoy it. This is when things came to head in their marriage
He went in to talk about how not being able to make each other happy.
We realized that it was a fantasy illusion that we could make each other happy,” Will said. “We agreed that she had to make herself happy and I had to make myself happy. Then we were going to present ourselves back to the relationship already happy — versus demanding that the other person fill our empty cup.”
He said, “We just decided, ‘You have to figure out how to be happy.” Though he admitted it was more “contentious” from his side, telling Jada: “‘Go figure out if you can be happy and prove to me it’s even possible.’ I’m gonna do me and you do you.”
As previously reported, Will shared he fell in love with a co-star, when he was married to Sheree Zampino.
In an exclusive excerpt from his upcoming memoir, ‘Will,’ the actor shares that he once fell in love with his then co-star, Stockard Channing, of ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ while married to Sheree.
He wrote, “Sheree and I were in the first few months of our marriage with a brand-new baby and for Sheree, I can imagine that this experience was unsettling to say the least.” Will continued to explain that Sheree was living with the character he portrayed for the film, “She’d married a guy named Will Smith, and now she was living with a guy named Paul Poitier.” He then stated, “And to make matters worse, during shooting, I fell in love with Stockard Channing.”
Will also expressed that he wanted to see Channing after filming had wrapped. “Our marriage was off to a rocky start. I found myself desperately yearning to see and speak to Stockard.”
