Jada Pinkett Smith & Will SmithFilmMagic

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In an interview ahead of the release of her memoir, Worthy, Jada Pinkett Smith told us how Will Smith reacted to her bombshell memoir that was published on October 17.

The book, which is an in depth look at Pinkett Smith’s life, career and marriage, revealed for the first time that she and the King Richard actor have been separated since 2016. “By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” the actress, 52, said during an interview with Hoda Kotb last week. “I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”

Despite the separation, Pinkett Smith insists there is no plans to divorce from her husband of 26 years. So, when she spoke to us at SheKnows, she revealed that she and Smith are on such good terms that he was one of few people who read her memoir before its publication.

“Will has read the entire book,” Pinkett Smith told us. “Will is super happy and very surprised. He’s like, ‘Man, you think you know somebody.’ He really enjoyed the book.”

Smith shared a more in-depth, yet still cryptic, response in an email to the New York Times that was published in an October 14 interview with the outlet. “When you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life,” he wrote, “a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.” The outlet says Smith told them the book made him realize his wife had been more resilient than he had known.

As for her children’s reaction, sources have claimed in unverified reports that Pinkett Smith’s two kids with Smith, Jaden and Willow, and Smith’s son from a previous marriage, Trey, “feel bad for their dad with all the recent headlines about their parents.” However, Pinkett Smith told us that she had prepared her kids for what would be in the book.

“Willow read part of the book before it was even edited. My boys haven’t read the book yet even though we’ve talked about what’s in the book,” she said. “My boys are waiting for their hard copy.”

For all its revelations about some of the more challenging parts of their marriage, the book is largely complimentary to Will and proves that his and Pinkett Smith’s very civilized separation is not just a front. In the second last chapter of the book, Pinkett Smith relays a vow to love Smith unconditionally in spite of their split.

Spurred on by seeing Smith’s hurt following the Oscars 2022 where he slapped Chris Rock after hearing a joke at his wife’s expense, Pinkett Smith writes, “The Holy Slap helped me learn how to walk hand in hand with Will, with all the bats and gremlins, the part of him that had been banished deep into his darkest exiled lands, and to be a torch of love for him until he could find his own.”