Will Smith and Jada Pinket Smith’s marriage has been much buzzed about in recent weeks since rapper August Alsina accused Jada of carrying on a relationship with him while the actress was married to Will. Will and Jada later confirmed the relationship during an episode of Red Table Talk. There have been multiple reports over the years claiming Will and Jada’s marriage was falling apart, especially during the years when the relationship between Jada and Alsina took place. Gossip Cop is taking a look back on those reports to see if these new developments made us rethink our past judgements.
August Alsina’s Electrifying Accusations
Alsina came forward about his affair with Jada during an interview with The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee and though Will and Jada had a few rebuttals to make during their Red Table Talk session, they largely agreed with his version of events. The couple, who have been married since 1997, acknowledged during the shortened version of Jada’s popular Facebook show that about four and a half years ago, they’d been separated for an undefined period of time when the family first met Alsina.
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The relationship between Alsina and Jada was apparently platonic at first, with Jada saying she was initially drawn to the rapper in an effort to help him heal. “It all started with him just needing some help. Me wanting to help his health, his mental state,” Jada explained about the beginning of her relationship with Alsina, who has been open about his battle with an auto-immune disease.
At some point, which neither Jada or Will specified, the nature of her relationship with the 27-year-old rapper changed. “I got into an entanglement with August,” Jada confessed. After some prodding from Will, Jada elaborated, “Yes, it was a relationship. Absolutely. I was in a lot of pain. I was very broken.”
Jada also acknowledged that part of the reason for her relationship with Alsina was to get away from Will during a difficult time in their marriage, but that proved to be futile. “I would definitely say we did everything that we could to get away from each other, only to realize that that wasn’t possible.”
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Eventually, the romance between Alsina and Jada fizzled out. Will and Jada eventually reconciled and Jada admitted it had been a long while since she’d even spoken to Alsina, which was why the actress thought it was “weird” that he suddenly began speaking about their relationship publicly.
Tracing The Tabloid Rumors
Those are the events as they stand today, but several years ago, when this relationship was playing out, Gossip Cop passed judgement on several tabloid articles that made claims we believed to be outlandish at the time. This new deluge of information has changed the way we view some of these claims, but many others were wildly uninformed.
We first came across rumors linking Jada Pinkett Smith to August Alsina in 2017. MediaTakeOut was the unscrupulous outlet behind the false story that Jada was considering leaving her husband for the younger rapper. Gossip Cop spoke with a contact close to the situation who laughed off the claims and pointed out that the family had just “spent a week sailing in a yacht around Greece with their family and friends.” Though this article came at a time when it’s entirely possible that Jada and Alsina were carrying on their romance, it’s clear that Jada did not decide to divorce Will Smith in order to continue her relationship with the younger man. We may have been incorrect in describing the relationship between Alsina and Jada as “platonic,” but other than unsubstantiated rumors, we had no proof of the true nature of their relationship until recent weeks.
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Early the next year, another celebrity gossip site claimed Will Smith and Jada were leading separate lives and considering divorcing. The often debunked site RadarOnline cited so-called “sources” who claimed Jada wanted to grow her own career and was tired of “living in Will’s shadow.” A rep for Jada informed Gossip Cop that this story was “false” and we found an Instagram video Will posted of the couple hanging out together in a paddle boat. Following the loose timeline of Jada and Alsina’s relationship, it’s unclear whether this was still a period in which Jada and Will were separated, but obviously the couple ultimately decided not to divorce, so this reporting is still suspect.
Will Smith, Jada Pinkett’s Open Marriage, Cheating
Beyond rumors about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith divorcing, there have been dozens of reports that the couple either have an open marriage or that they’re cheating on each other. One tabloid, Star, went so far as to claim the famous spouses “haven’t slept together in six years” in addition to the two allegedly having an open marriage. A questionable source told the publication, “They allow each other the freedom to do what they want — with who they want — as long as they don’t get caught.” This particular rumor was published late in 2018, which makes it more likely to be during a period where Jada and Will were reconciling, though we still don’t know the exact moment the two decided to remain committed to each other and their marriage. At the time, Gossip Cop debunked the story using our own impeccable, anonymous source close to Jada who told us the story was nonsense. Besides, Jada has personally denied rumors that the two have an open relationship after her words were twisted to imply that was the case.
When the two weren’t accused of having an open marriage, Will was often accused of carrying on affairs on his own. Margot Robbie, Will’s Suicide Squad and Focus co-star, was said by National Enquirer to have set of a “crisis” in the actor’s marriage to Jada. The supposed “crisis” was over a set of photo booth pictures Will and Robbie took together on set of their 2013 film Focus. The nearly decade old photos didn’t bother Jada at the time, Gossip Cop found, nor would they bother her nearly a decade later.
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Regardless, the rumors about Margot Robbie’s relationship with Will Smith continued, with Star reporting that Will cheated on his wife with the blonde actress. Once again, these rumors were based on those old photos of Robbie and Will goofing around in a photo booth. Since the premise of the article was so flawed, and based on such old evidence, Gossip Cop called the outlet out and we believe we were right to do so.
Last summer, rumors about Jada’s relationship with August Alsina were resurrected once again and NW insisted Will and Jada were headed for a divorce over her relationship with the rapper. Though we were unaware at the time that Alsina and Jada did in fact have a romantic relationship at some point, Gossip Cop determined the rumors were false. Since the two have not gotten divorced, and have in fact adamantly insisted they will remain married, we feel vindicated about our initial judgement.
After The ‘Red Table Talk’ Special Episode
Since the news about Jada Pinkett Smith’s relationship with August Alsina has come to light, the reporting from the tabloids has changed somewhat, but the same message remains. Tabloids know that three things sell best: babies, marriages, and divorces. Most of the more unscrupulous characters in the supermarket celebrity gossip rags have stuck with the third option. Perhaps that’s why the National Enquirer falsely claimed Will and Jada’s “bizarre marriage” was heading towards a $270 million divorce. The spouses were supposedly already leading separate lives (sound familiar?) when Alsina made his accusations.
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Insiders allegedly told the outlet that Jada and Will were “reeling from embarrassment and blaming each other for the scandal,” which the tabloid insisted could be the “final blow to their 22-year marriage!” Both Jada and Will spoke about their ongoing commitment to their marriage during their latest Red Table Talk episode, which this shady publication must have missed. If the couple hasn’t divorced yet, and are still denying that they will, it seems likely to Gossip Cop that the two aren’t ready for a split quite yet.
The latest tall tale about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith once again comes from Star, which can never quite get the story right when it comes to this couple. They don’t get the story right when it comes to other couples either, but it really seems like this tabloid has it out for Will and Jada. The outlet claimed Jada and Will were headed to the Bahamas to save their marriage. One problem: the Bahamas recently issued a travel ban on American tourists due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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It’s clear to see that the tabloids never had the full story when it came to reporting on Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s marriage. The only reason anyone knows as much about the business concerning Jada’s relationship with August Alsina is because the people actually involved in that “business” came forward and provided information. While we many never have a complete picture of what actually went down, at least we know now that waiting for further information is way better than simply spreading rumors.