Will Smith, 52, and Jada Pinkett Smith, 49, have proven time and again that love can last in Hollywood. The two have been together since the ’90s, and today, December 31, marks their 23rd wedding anniversary. On any given red carpet, they nearly always turn heads. But it’s taken years of love, trust and hard work for the two to maintain their bond while standing in the spotlight. We’re taking a look back at their early years together to today on their milestone anniversary!
Meeting At An Audition

Wedding Bells On New Year’s Eve

Starting A Family

Jaden played the son of Will’s character in the Oscar-nominated film The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006 and After Earth in 2013. Willow appeared as Will’s character’s daughter in the 2007 film I Am Legend. Willow is also the co-host of Red Table Talk with Jada and Jada’s mom, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
A Decade Of Love

Setting The Record Straight

But even Will has admitted that there were times that he wasn’t doing enough for the couple’s marriage in the past. “There was a period where mommy woke up and cried 45 days straight. I started keeping a diary,” Will told Willow during an October 2018 episode of Red Table Talk. “It was every morning. I think that’s the worst I’ve ever felt in our marriage. I was failing miserably.”
The ‘Entanglement’ Story

For her part, Jada admitted that “one of the things that I’m deeply grateful in this whole process between you and I is that we have really gotten to that new place of unconditional love.” Will, however, admitted that he “wasn’t sure I was ever going to speak to you again.” The two, however, worked on their marriage and relationship. “The fact that I’m speaking to you again is a miracle.”
To that end, Jada couldn’t have agreed more. “You gotta go through some sh-t to get the answers. I’m just happy because I definitely believe you and I never ever, ever thought we’d make it back.”
Moving Forward

“We don’t even say we’re married anymore,” Will said on a July 2018 episode of TIDAL’s Rap Radar podcast. “We refer to ourselves as ‘life partners,’ where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There’s no deal breakers. There’s nothing she could do—ever—nothing that would break our relationship. She has my support ’til death, and it feels so good to get to that space.”
Will’s New Memoir
Will opened up about some of the difficulties that he and Jada faced early on in his new memoir, fittingly titled Will, which was released November 9. The I Am Legend star admitted that the pair had problems in their relationship, partially due to marrying young. He said that the couple were “suffering the brutal death of our romantic fantasies, the burning away of the idealistic illusion of the perfect marriage and the perfect family,” but neither wanted to divorce.
In the book, Will admitted that the two realized that they “were two separate people on two independent, individual journeys.” After tears and hugs, the pair decided that each had to take their own happiness into their own hands. “We agreed that Jada’s happiness had to be her responsibility, and my happiness had to be my responsibility. We were going to seek our distinct, innermost personal joys, and then we were going to return and present ourselves to the relationship and to each other already happy—not coming to each other begging with empty cups, demanding the other person fulfill our needs. We felt that this vampiric relational model was unfair, unrealistic, destructive—even abusive. To place the responsibility for your happiness on anybody other than yourself is a recipe for misery,” he wrote.