Jada Pinkett put the final nail in the coffin of her marriage to Will Smith when she confessed to the world that she’d been unfaithful to her husband in an on-air interview that left the Men in Black star ‘humiliated’, insiders have claimed.

The actress, 52, made the shock revelation on Wednesday that she and her spouse have been separated for seven years – since 2016 – claiming that their marriage broke down when they both grew ‘exhausted’ of trying to save it.

However, a source close to the couple has now shed new light on the situation, claiming that the pair were actually working on repairing their marriage behind the scenes, even in the wake of Jada’s infidelity, right up until July 2020, when she confirmed in a joint on-air appearance with Will, that she’d been involved with another man, singer August Alsina.

The bombshell confessional, which was aired on Jada’s Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, is said to have left Will, 55, ‘humiliated’, and ultimately proved to be the final straw for the actor as far as the future of his marriage was concerned.

‘Jada torched her marriage to the ground when she brought Will on Red Table Talk and publicly humiliated him in front of the world,’ the insider told DailyMail.com.

They added that Will was left particularly hurt by the fact that he had defended his wife so publicly when August, now 31, first claimed that he’d had a relationship with Jada – just days before she confirmed the truth on her show.

‘Will defended Jada against infidelity accusations at the time of the affair, and he would get into it with people. He truly believed she hadn’t cheated. There was no walking back from that and Jada knew this too.’

During their Red Table Talk confessional, Jada revealed to the world how her affair with August began – although she insisted that, at the time, she and Will were going through a ‘difficult’ patch and had ‘basically broken up’.

She added: ‘I was in a lot of pain, and I was very broken. In the process of that relationship I definitely realized that you can’t find happiness outside yourself.

‘I just wanted to feel good, It had been so long since I felt good… and it was really a joy to just help heal somebody.’

Her admission came after August sat down with The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee on June 30 of that year and told her that he’d been in love with Jada during their relationship – to which he said he had committed ‘years of his life’.

‘I sat down with Will [Smith] and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership… he gave me his blessing,’ August said.

‘I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really deeply love and have a ton of love for her.’

However Jada vehemently denied August’s claims that Will had given him ‘permission’ to pursue a relationship with his wife, while noting that it felt ‘weird’ to be addressing what she described as an ‘entanglement’ with the singer all these years later because he had decided to air it.

However, both she and Will said that they had been working to reach a ‘new place of unconditional love’ in the years since it happened.

At one point in the conversation they even echoed each other, saying: ‘We ride together. We die together. Bad marriage for life,’ a reference to a catchphrase in Will’s Bad Boys franchise.

On Wednesday, Jada made a dramatic U-turn on that statement, claiming to the world in a candid interview with NBC News that they had actually been separated since 2016 – the same year that she began her relationship with August – four years before the Red Table Talk conversation even took place.

Her bombshell admission came as part of a series of revelations shared by the actress during the promotion for her upcoming book Worthy – in which she also addresses the infamous moment that her husband slapped Chris Rock on-stage at the 2022 Oscars after the comedian made a joke about Jada’s bald head amid her battle with alopecia.

In an interview with People to promote her new book Worthy, Jada revealed that she thought the whole incident was ‘a skit’.

‘I thought, “This is a skit,”‘ she told the outlet. ‘I was like, “There’s no way that Will hit him.”‘

According to the source, that admission has done little to aid her ‘fractured’ relationship with Will, who is said to be trying desperately to move on from the incident once and for all.

‘Hearing Jada tell people that she didn’t support his decision to slap Chris and that she thought it was a skit does no good for Will who is trying to move on from this incident,’ the source said.

‘Will knew about this big reveal that Jada was doing, but it is not helping him at all.’

Will and Jada, who tied the knot in 1997, share son Jaden, 25, and daughter Willow, 23, while the I Am Legend star also has a son, Trey, from a previous relationship.

Jada’s latest interview pulled the couple’s authenticity into question, having declared their love and commitment for one another, put on loved-up displays on the red carpet, shared Instagram tributes, and regularly referred to one another as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ during the last seven years.

DailyMail.com reached out to reps for Jada and Will for comment.