Jada Pinkett Smith says the Oscar slap incident re-affirmed her marriage to Will Smith after their separation

Jada Pinkett Smith is making the rounds to promote her new memoir, Worthy, which will be released on Tuesday. Naturally, the hot-button topic and morbidly curious issue of the day during her presence at these press outlets will point toward the 2022 Academy Awards, where something happened between Chris Rock and Will Smith in the name of Jada. The whirlwind of her marriage to Will is something Jada has been vocal about even before the incident. She revealed years ago during her YouTube show, Red Table Talk, that she had been “entangled” with another man during a separation with Will, and recently, she revealed on The Today Show that she had been separated with Will since 2016.

According to Variety, Jada recently sat down for an in-person conversation at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York City on Monday night, presented by CAA and Vanity Fair. During the conversation, she spilled more personal information about how she and Will “did some really deep work together” after the Academy Awards incident. Jada was heard to remark, “When I was sitting at the Oscars, it clicked in. As soon as I was like, ‘Oh snap, you hit Chris?’ I was like, I’m riding with you. I didn’t come into this place as your wife, but I’m leaving here as your wife because we got a storm we’re going to have to deal with together. I am not gonna leave your side.”

She continued to reflect on the state of their marriage, “In 2016, we both were exhausted — pulling at each other, power struggles — and I had to go and really learn how to love myself before I could even identify what love looked like coming from somebody else. I had to really learn that about Will. I wasn’t entitled to him.” Jada assured the audience that Will and their children had given her his blessing to reveal details she saw fit for her memoir. She expounded, “[Will] was like, ‘You haven’t been able to have your authentic voice through and through. I will be comfortable with whatever you want to share. I trust you.’” Additionally, Will had read the book prior to her sending it to her publisher, and she admitted, “He didn’t change a word. He changed nothing.”