The spotlight has been put on Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s marriage this week after singer August Alsina claimed he had Will’s blessing to have an affair with Jada.
Jada’s representatives denied the claims, saying were “absolutely not true” to Page Six, while Will’s spokesperson described them as “wrong”.
So, with the Hollywood couple’s relationship and 23-year marriage on everyone’s lips, now seems to be the perfect time to take a trip down memory lane and delve into their romance.
Will and Jada tied the knot in 1997 and have been very open about their sex lives over the years.
They met in 1994 on the set of the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, when Jada auditioned for the role of Will’s love interest.
She didn’t get the role, but she got to be his real life love interest in the end.
Will and Jada’s marriage has been thrown into the spotlight this week (Image: Getty Images)
Back then, Will was married to his first wife Sheree Zampino, who is the mother of his 27-year-old son Trey.
But he knew Jada was the one for him, saying: “That night me and Sheree went to dinner, and I sat down with Sheree, and it was one of the most bizarre emotions I ever had.
“We were at The Palm and I remember I had to get up from dinner when I had a realisation that I wasn’t with the person I was supposed to be with.”
August Alsina claimed he had Will’s blessing to have an affair with Jada (Image: WireImage)
The couple went on to have son Jaden, 21, and daughter Willow, 19, after getting married in 1997.
But they have been plagued by claims of an open marriage for years, with Will’s comments about their relationship raising eyebrows.
The 51-year-old previously said: “Our perspective is, you don’t avoid what’s natural. You’re going to be attracted to people.
Will and Jada have been married since 1997 but met in 1994 (Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
“In our marriage vows, we didn’t say ‘forsaking all others’. The vow that we made was that you will never hear that I did something after the fact.
“If it came down to it, then one can say to the other, ‘Look, I need to have sex with somebody. I’m not going to if you don’t approve of it – but please approve of it.'”
Jada recently confessed she enjoys watching her actor husband’s sex scenes and spoke about how she had some “intimate” time during “breaks” on film sets, as well as her love of sex toys.
She also opened up about Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It with Will in the back of a limo on the way to the Oscars in 2010.
Will and Jada have two children together, Jaden and Willow, while Will also has son Trey from his first marriage (Image: Getty Images North America)
The 48-year-old said: “We started kissing passionately and the next thing I knew, well, let’s say we missed the red carpet and I ended up with almost no makeup on.”
A year later, in 2011, Jada was hit by rumours that she was having a fling with Jennifer Lopez’s then-husband Marc Anthony.
Jada and Will released a joint statement which denied the claims, saying: “Although we are reluctant to respond to these types of press reports, the rumours circulating about our relationship are completely false.
“We are still together, and our marriage is intact.”
Jada has denied being in an open marriage with Will on numerous occasions (Image: Getty Images)
But two years later, Jada was again forced to deny that they had an open marriage.
She said in an honest interview: “I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be OK.’
“Because, at the end of the day, Will is his own man. I’m here as his partner, but he is his own man.
“He has to decide who he wants to be and that’s not for me to do for him. Or vice versa.”
On Facebook, she added: “Will and I both can do whatever we want, because we trust each other. This does not mean we have an open relationship. This means we have a grown one.”
Will and Jada refer to each other as “life partners” rather than husband and wife, as the traditional titles make Jade feel like she’s in a “golden cage”.
August Alsina claimed he had an affair with Jada after getting Will’s blessing – something Will and Jada deny (Image: Getty Images for BET)
But they have previously split up, with Will saying in 2018 that they briefly separated after disagreeing about daughter Willow’s singing career.
Will said: “We essentially had to destroy our marriage. She was like, ‘I can’t do this any more,’ and to me it was over, but divorce was never even an option.
“We broke up within our marriage and got back together again. We had to rebuild with new rules and something completely different.”
This week, singer August Alsina stoked the flames again saying: “I sat down with Will and had a conversation, due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership that they’ve spoken on several times, and it, you know, not involving romanticism.
“He gave me his blessing. I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really, deeply loved and have a ton of love for her.”
Will and Jada met on the set of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air (Image: The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)
He said that the two were introduced in 2015 via her son Jaden.
They were pictured together on occasions including the 2017 Black Entertainment Television awards in LA.
And he was forced to deny lyrics to his track Nunya were about Jada last year.
The lyrics read: “You got me feeling like it was an act, you’re just an actress. Putting on a show ’cause you don’t want the world to know.”
But he explained: “Contrary to what people may believe, I am not a troublemaker. I don’t like drama. Drama actually makes me nauseous.
“And I also don’t think that it is ever important for people to know what I do, who I sleep with, who I date.
“But in this instance it is very different because there are so many people that are side-eying me, looking at me questionable.
“I have lost money, friendships, relationships behind it and I think it is because people don’t necessarily know the truth. But I have never done anything wrong.”
Speaking of the Smiths, he said: “I love those people literally like my family. I don’t have a bad thing to say about them. They are beautiful people.
“I can die right now and be OK knowing that I fully gave myself to somebody. Some people never get that in this lifetime.”
Representatives for both Will and Jada have completely denied any truth to August’s claims.
It appears Jada will soon speak about the claims, as she confirmed she will be “taking herself to the Red Table”, her Facebook talk show, as “there’s some healing that needs to happen”.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
