Jada Pinkett-Smith Is Not ‘Built For Conventional Marriage’

Jada Pinkett Smith knew she and husband Will Smith couldn’t have a “conventional marriage.”

In a new interview with The Guardian, the actress opened up about having tough conversations with her husband of almost 22 years.

She explains, “I knew that I was not built for conventional marriage. Even the word ‘wife’: it’s a golden cage, swallow the key. Even before I was married, I was like, ‘That’ll kill me.’ And it damn near did! So why wouldn’t you share what you’ve been through, when you see that other people are out there, trying to figure this crap out? We decided to make it public because it’s part of the healing. I feel like if we don’t have real understanding about it, I don’t know if interpersonal relationships are possible.”

Pinkett Smith often makes headlines for voicing provocative ideas about the difficulties of marriage, but she’d like to clear one thing up: that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love being married to Smith.

“Will is my life partner and I could not ask for a better one,” she said. “I adore him, I never want people to think it was Will I didn’t want to marry – he and I were talking about this the other day. But I can assure you that some of the most powerful women in the world feel caged and tied, because of the sacrifices they have to make to be in that position. So I wanted to talk about how we really feel about marriage. How do we really feel about different, unconventional relationships? How do we really feel about raising children? Honestly.”

How did Pinkett Smith get through the times she felt “caged and tied”? She credits the women in her life for helping her talk things out – just like she now does with daughter Willow Smith and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris on her web series “Red Table Talk.”

“When I was going through a really tough time in my life, there were three women, three friends, who were so honest with me – I mean so honest with me, saying some stuff you would never expect anyone to say – that they re-directed my journey. But it wasn’t necessarily advice, it was that they were willing to spend time with me and share.”

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