There was a time when Jada Pinkett Smith — one half of a Hollywood golden couple — actually made movies.
But since she launched her Facebook series “Red Table Talk” in 2018, Jada has only been about releasing one specific product: tawdry personal disclosures about her marriage and sex life.
She’s made her life an open book.
But that open book is outwardly a piece of fiction, as evidenced by her latest revelatory project, “Worthy,” a memoir dropping Oct. 17.
After five years of running a liquidation sale on her marital secrets and innermost thoughts, what’s actually left to fill a book?
No worries, folks — she had an ace in her pocket.
The “Girls Trip” actress has been separated from her husband, Will, since 2016. Or so she told “Today” show host Hoda Kotb during an interview to plug the book.
“Not a divorce on paper nevertheless it was a divorce,” Kotb said. “Seven years ago. Y’all have been apart.”
“Yeah,” said Jada.
Kotb later clarified: “But you continue to live individually.”
“We live individually.”
Pardon?
What a charade for the Smiths — who, for the previous few years, have turned their marriage inside out to create Tinseltown’s biggest drama.
Nearly a decade of lying in regards to the state of their union. Jada denying, denying and finally admitting to an extramarital “entanglement” along with her son’s friend. Multiple “Red Table Talk” episodes diving into their love story and marital struggles. Countless appearances on the red carpet. Smith’s implying in his own 2021 memoir that they had weathered tough times but were still together. Smith slapping Chris Rock on the 2022 Oscars to defend his wife’s honor.
But all that authenticity was to obscure the underside line: They weren’t together.
Why didn’t they announce it earlier? Why pretend?
“I feel just not being ready yet. Still trying to work out between the 2 of us, how to be in partnership right? And with reference to, how can we present that to people … We hadn’t figured that out,” Jada told Kotb.
Or perhaps it was to keep the drama going.
Their relationship, which has long been tormented by rumors about infidelity and their sexuality, sells. It makes headlines. It keeps them relevant.
In 2018 — two years after what we now know was the yr of their separation — Will sat down for an excruciating “Red Table Talk” to shamelessly dissect their partnership, painting the image of a contemporary relationship using vague strokes and platitudes.
“There’s nothing that would occur that we won’t be together and love one another. .. It’s because we cracked one another’s heads wide open. We set one another free and people really struggle with that,” said Will, adding that there have been things Jada needed to make her comfortable that he didn’t necessarily approve of.
Perhaps that was sowing her oats with a younger man.
In 2020, singer August Alsina claimed he had a relationship with Jada, whom he met through her son, Jaden, at a 2015 music festival.
“I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership … he gave me his blessing,” Alsina told Angela Yee on “The Breakfast Club.”
“I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I actually and really, really deeply love and have a ton of affection for her. I devoted myself to it.”
Jada’s rep swiftly issued an explicit denial to Page Six: “Absolutely not true.”
Nevertheless, the subsequent month,Will and Jada sat down for a “Red Table Talk” to address something they said they never intended on discussing publicly.
“About 4 and a half years ago … I began a friendship with August. We actually became really, really good friends,” Jada said. “It began with him just needing some help, you understand? Me wanting to help his health, his mental state.” She admitted that this “entanglement” happened while she and Smith were separated.
“You and I were going through a really difficult time,” she told her A-list spouse, who jokingly replied, “I used to be done together with your ass.”
“Yeah, you kicked me to the curb,” Jada said.
They ended this emergency clean-up session with a proclamation of togetherness.
“Twenty-five years and counting. We ride together, we die together,” Will said before they cheered in unison: “Bad marriage for all times,” twisting a quote from his hit movie “Bad Boys.”
Even in his 2022 memoir, “Will,” the actor wrote of their marriage: “We were each miserable and clearly something had to change.”
But never once does he say that change meant living individually.
As an alternative, he wrote: “All the way in which to my marriage today, I’ve only been single for a complete of 15 days.”
Each of this couple’s disclosures have as an alternative been drawn out and linked to a business interest.
“Will and I even have decided to even throw away the concept of marriage. It’s a life partnership within the sense that we created a foundation together that we all know is for this lifetime,” Jada had said once on “Red Table.”
Whatever any of this flowery gobbledygook means — we could have done with the Cliffs Notes.
“I feel such as you’re a straight talker,” Kotb said on “Today” Wednesday.
“I’m.”
“Except you’re not sometimes,” Kotb shot back.
“Yeah,” Jada replied, caught in the online of her own narcissistic BS.
You can’t play the general public and expect them to uphold you as beacons of enlightenment. And it is a family who loves being admired.
But that is greater than only a confession in regards to the marriage. It’s an admission of Will and Jada’s dubious relationship with the reality.