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 apparently a work 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 but it was a divorce,” Kotb said. “Seven years ago. Y’all have been apart.”
“Yeah,” said Jada.
Kotb later clarified: “But you still live separately.”
“We live separately.”
Pardon?
What a charade for the Smiths — who, for the last few years, have turned their marriage inside out to create Tinseltown’s biggest drama.
Nearly a decade of lying about the state of their union. Jada denying, denying and finally admitting to an extramarital “entanglement” 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 at the 2022 Oscars to defend his wife’s honor.
But all that authenticity was to obscure the bottom line: They weren’t together.
Why didn’t they announce it earlier? Why pretend?
“I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us, how to be in partnership right? And in regards to, how do we present that to people … We hadn’t figured that out,” Jada told Kotb.
Or maybe it was to keep the drama going.
Their relationship, which has long been plagued 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 year of their separation — Will sat down for an excruciating “Red Table Talk” to shamelessly dissect their partnership, painting the picture of a modern relationship using vague strokes and platitudes.
“There’s nothing that could happen that we won’t be together and love each other. .. It’s because we cracked each other’s heads wide open. We set each other free and people really struggle with that,” said Will, adding that there were things Jada needed to make her happy that he did not 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 truly and really, really deeply love and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to it.”
Jada’s rep swiftly issued an explicit denial to Page Six: “Absolutely not true.”
However, the next month,Will and Jada sat down for a “Red Table Talk” to address something they said they never intended on discussing publicly.
“About four and a half years ago … I started a friendship with August. We actually became really, really good friends,” Jada said. “It all started with him just needing some help, you know? 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 very difficult time,” she told her A-list spouse, who jokingly replied, “I was done 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 life,” twisting a quote from his hit movie “Bad Boys.”
Even in his 2022 memoir, “Will,” the actor wrote of their marriage: “We were both miserable and clearly something had to change.”
But never once does he say that change meant living separately.
Instead, he wrote: “All the way to my marriage today, I’ve only been single for a total of 15 days.”
Each of this couple’s disclosures have instead been drawn out and linked to a commercial interest.
“Will and I have decided to even throw away the concept of marriage. It’s a life partnership in the sense that we created a foundation together that we 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 like you’re a straight talker,” Kotb said on “Today” Wednesday.
“I am.”
“Except you’re not sometimes,” Kotb shot back.
“Yeah,” Jada replied, caught in the web of her own narcissistic BS.
You can’t play the public and expect them to uphold you as beacons of enlightenment. And this is a family who loves being admired.
But this is more than just a confession about the marriage. It’s an admission of Will and Jada’s dubious relationship with the truth.
