Jada Smith vowed to “throw her career away” to save her relationship with her husband. “That Jada and That Will Love” was the epitome of love throughout the 90s and early 2000s, but recent events have revealed that perfection can be elusive. From the Oscar debacle to Jada Smith’s infamous “entanglement,” the couple’s journey has demonstrated that appearances can be deceiving. Despite being married for over 25 years, it’s only now that the public has become aware of the immense struggles the couple had to overcome in order to maintain their strength amidst a tumultuous storm.
In a 2001 interview with Jeffrey Zaslow, the actress claimed she was ready to throw her career away in order to save her marriage with Will Smith. While much has transpired since then, let’s take a brief retrospective on how she has followed through with her claims.
Inside “That Jada and That Will Love”
The couple Will and Jada Smith met after a lot of near misses. Although it seemed it wasn’t meant to be at first, the moment they both got a chance to get together, they realized it was meant to be. Thus, their relationship kickstarted after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s divorce from her first wife. Soon after that, the IT couple quickly took over Hollywood. Jada Smith was so dedicated to her marriage, that during a 2001 interview, she said,
“”I will throw my career away before I let it break up our marriage. I made it clear to Will. I’d throw it away completely.”
Following that period, their relationship remained relatively low-key, with occasional interviews that garnered some attention. However, their relationship once again became a topic of discussion when a Red Table Talk episode addressed Jada Smith’s involvement with August Alsina.
In that October 2018 appearance on the aforementioned show, Will Smith engaged in an open and honest discussion. In this candid conversation, he discussed the process of realizing and letting go of the pressure of maintaining a perfect image, a light under which he had previously been accustomed to shining. This was closely followed by the incident at the 2022 Oscars, which many believed was influenced by the infamous Red Table Talk episode. But even after all this, they never considered divorce and continued to work on themselves together. Jada Smith said,
“I put in too much. Period,–Why do that? Why create all that disruption? I told Will from the gate, I said let me tell you something, ‘If you marry me, know this: we’re gonna be together. We’re going to be under the same roof’… for me personally, I knew that there was no reason that he and I would ever [divorce].”
Although people argue, that their marriage is in shambles now, sources close to the couple have time and again claimed it has surprisingly brought them even closer.
Where Is Jada Smith in Her Career Now?
Jada Pinkett Smith experienced a decline in her career trajectory following her involvement in the two Matrix sequels in 2003. However, she began to regain momentum with notable roles such as The Women and made her directorial debut with The Human Contract in the same year.
In recent years, she has continued to make strides with films like Magic Mike XXL and Girls Trip, but the sector she really flourished in was television, most notably as the host of the talk show Red Table Talk, which premiered in 2018 and has garnered significant popularity and critical acclaim. Since then her career has expanded beyond the realms of acting or hosting, she has also produced a Netflix docu-series called African Queens and most recently Queen Cleopatra.
Therefore, despite the challenges the couple has faced, it appears that Jada Pinkett Smith did not have to completely sacrifice her career in order to salvage her marriage.
Source: Mirror
