Will Smith, 55, has broken his silence after his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, 52, publicly revealed they’ve been separated for the past seven years for the first time this week. The actor responded to a comment request from The New York Times, and opened up about what he learned from the actress’ new memoir, Worthy. In addition to saying the book “kind of woke” him “up,” he said he realized Jada is more “resilient, clever and compassionate than he’d understood.”
“When you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life, a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties,” he wrote in an email, according to the outlet.
Will’s comments come just days after Jada, whom he married in 1997, shocked the public when she admitted she and her husband have been living separate lives but refuse to get divorced, in an interview for NBC News. “I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever, and I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she told Hoda Kotb during the sit-down.
“By the time we got to 2016, we were exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she added.
Shortly after the interview aired, a source said that Will and Jada’s children, Willow Smith, 22, and Jaden Smith, 25, are “relieved” their mom decided to admit the truth about the separation. “Although Jaden and Willow love their mom to no end and take on many of her behaviors and traits, they are very relieved the news is finally out there so everyone can just get on with it, no one is getting any younger,” the insider said. ‘They all want everyone to be true to themselves and not hold any more grudges or secrets.”