They had to break down their relationship to rebuild and reconnect with each other at a deeper level and that took almost two years.
Many celebrity relationships have crumpled in the public eye, but there are many others who make it through. They don't have it easy just because they are successful actors. A-listers like Will and Jada Pinkett Smith put in years of hard work into their marriage for it thrive today. They chose to work on it consciously, broke it down to the foundation and built it all back again.
Rather than taking the easy way out of going separate ways and not addressing the problems, they took the harder one of rebuilding their relationship. Today, they acknowledge each other as "life partners" and not just husband and wife.
“We're in a life partnership, you know, and just wanting to create that freedom for ourselves, because there are people out here that are really thriving and love being in conventional marriages, [but] we wanted to give that space, honor that space, and know that we wanted to create a space for us that’s a bit different," Jada said, according to Extra TV. She said being honest has made their relationship stronger. One way they got honest was when they spoke about it publicly on her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk. They wanted to rid themselves of illusions and show the world their real selves, which are less than perfect.
“What was really important about Will and I doing that show together — two things,” she said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “First of all was really to kind of get rid of the idea that people in the public eye have perfect relationships. We were kind of sick of living up to that. We were real sick of it, and then second of all really having myself and Will come and talk about our relationship — sometimes you see just women do it alone or you just see a guy do it," she said.
“Us coming together and taking responsibility for both of our parts and also Will being the successful guy that he is and being willing to share what his pitfalls were in the relationship and in his family, you can’t imagine how many other successful men called and said, ‘Wow, my wife has been saying the same thing for years. Because you said it, it opened my eyes and because you said it, I’m willing to listen,'” shared Jada.
Married for 22 years, the couple has two children, both artists as well. In a candid conversation on her show in October 2018, Will acknowledged how bad their relationship had become at one point.
“We essentially had to destroy our marriage. She was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ and to me… it was over, but divorce was never even an option,” he said. The couple then spent almost two years finding what the future of the relationship will be. We "had to rebuild with new rules and something way completely different.” The hard work came handy and Jada recently opened up saying, "I think I really thought happiness had a lot to do with pleasure and I realize that happiness is about peace."
“I am the most peaceful I’ve ever been in my life, so I am the happiest," she added.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJZAaTC59HI
