Gossip has been following the marriage of actor Will Smith and actress Jada Pinkett Smith.
Some speculate that the couple is in an open marriage after talks of unfaithfulness started making the rounds. In an episode of Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch, Jada, 48, opened up with Will, 51, and viewers about her affair with singer-songwriter August Alsina, 27. Fans were not happy with her explanation of what went down.
In the discussion, Jada mentioned her relationship with August, an artiste who turned to the Smiths during troubled times. Will began by telling Jada: “I think you need to say clearly what happened. You and I decided we were gonna take our space and what happened?” Jada responded by saying that she got an entanglement with August.
“An entanglement?” Will laughed. She replied: “A relationship, yes, it was a relationship absolutely.” In a later interview, August agreed with this description of their relationship.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, August said: “People can have whatever ideas that they like, but what I’m not OK with is my character being in question.
“I’m not a troublemaker. I don’t like drama. Drama actually makes me nauseous. I also don’t think that it’s ever important for people to know what I do, who I sleep with, who I date, right? But, in this instance, it’s very different, ’cause as I said, there are so many people that are side-eyeing me, looking at me questionable about it.”
August added: “I truly and really, really deeply loved, and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to it, I gave my full self to it. So much so to the point that I can die right now and be OK with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody. I really loved the person that I experienced that (with) and know what (that feels) like.”
Jada then told Will about what happened with her before she turned to August.
She said: “I was in a lot of pain and I was very broken. And in the process of that relationship I definitely realised that you can’t find happiness outside of yourself. And luckily enough you and I were going through a process of healing in a very different manner. I would definitely say that we did everything we could to get away from each other only to realise that that wasn’t possible.”
“I guess about four-and-a-half years ago, I started a friendship with August. And we actually became really really good friends. And it all started with him just needing some help, and me just wanting to help his health and mental state,” Jada added.
Will interjected: “Cause for me that was the thing, when Aug first came around he was really sick. And the outpouring for him from our family was initially about his health.”
“What do you feel like you were looking for?” asked Will.
Jada replied: “I just wanted to feel good. It had been so long since I felt good. And it was really a joy to help heal somebody. I think that has a lot to do with my codependency which is another thing I had to learn to break in this cycle. Needing to fix, and being drawn to people that need help. … There’s something about that childhood trauma that feels like it can be fixed through fixing people, versus fixing me.”
Since the Red Table Talk episode, fans have not been forgiving of Jada. They feel that the episode was self-serving and that her behaviour was predatory.
On Reddit, a user wrote: “Imagine having to hear how your mom f***ed the family friend not much older than you?”
Another user pointed out how Jada’s behaviour was somewhat predatory. This person wrote: “Is it not strange to anyone how Jada mentions they were helping this kid through an illness? On top of all the shitty things here – she was taking what she wanted, he was considerably younger – she was first and foremost a support figure for a sick kid (well, like, 21 or 22). I just find that super gross, and it says something about her character.”
“Oh my god THIS! It’s crazy how many people are focusing on the ‘affair’ part. He was 21, Jaden’s best friend at the time, and was dealing with mental illness. The Smiths were allegedly getting him help and it ended with Jada sleeping with him. Imagine if the situation was reversed and Will had taken advantage of a mentally-ill family friend 20 years his junior,” replied a second Redditor.
“She wants to sound like this was a learning process and healing and all the crap but in reality she slept with a young kid with a mental illness,” said another. /TISG