Jada Pinkett Smith calls Will Smith lashing out at Chris Rock the ‘holy slap’. Picture: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Jada Pinkett Smith calls Will Smith lashing out at Chris Rock the "holy slap".
The 'Girls Trip' star stunned fans in October when she revealed she and the 'King Richard' actor had secretly separated in 2016, and she's admitted it took the shocking moment at the 2022 Oscars when her estranged husband smacked the comedian over a joke he made about her to realise she would "never" fully leave her spouse.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper's You magazine: "I nearly didn’t even attend the Oscars that year, but I’m glad I did.
"I call it the 'holy slap’ now because so many positive things came after it.
"That moment of [it all] hitting the fan is when you see where you really are.
"After all those years trying to figure out if I would leave Will’s side, it took that slap for me to see I will never leave him. Who knows where our relationship would be if that hadn’t happened?"
The 52-year-old star - who has Jaden, 25, and Willow, 23 with Smith, and is also stepmother to his 30-year-old son Trey - laid bare her marital issues in her recently-released memoir 'Worthy', and she revealed she and the former 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' actor are planning to write a follow-up book together.
She said: "Will and I plan [to write] a book together called 'Don’t Try This at Home'.
"He has been on a journey. I have been on a journey. We want to write something where he puts the male side, I put the woman’s side and then these universal issues are resolved."
Smith and Pinkett Smith are currently living separately but she has vowed they will always be there for one another, even if "someone new came along".
She said: "We are both getting older. And besides, we’ve been together 30 years so, even if someone new came along, neither of us is going anywhere. We are a family that needs to look out for one another and always will be. Sometimes it takes a crisis for you to see that."
The family are planning a quiet "simple" Christmas celebration because the 'Bad Moms' star no longer feels the pressure to organise huge showbiz parties.
She said: "I’ve learnt to say no. Me, Will, the kids and some friends will head to a snowy location. It’ll be simple. Like a lot of women, I feel, 'What do we have when we strip away the nonsense and it’s just us?' I think that’s universal."