For two people who are, to all intents and purposes, not really together anymore, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s relationship seems to fascinate a lot of people.

Their unconventional marriage has become somewhat notorious in Hollywood, with recent reports suggesting that they are ‘living their own lives’ but ‘haven’t completely severed ties’.

The couple, who got married in 1997 and have two children together, have reportedly separated several times over the years and their relationship has landed somewhere difficult to define. In 2023, Pinkett Smith admitted they were ‘still figuring it out’.

‘We’ve been doing some really heavy duty work together. We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us,’ she told People. ‘I’m going to be by his side… but also allow him to have to figure this out for himself.’ We’re just as confused as you are.

The first time Pinkett Smith spoke candidly about their marriage was in 2013. After speaking to HuffPost Live about the freedom she grants Smith in their relationship, which was perceived to mean they are non-monogamous, she later clarified her statement on Facebook. The actress wrote, ‘Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship… this means we have a GROWN one.’ She then added that Smith is her ‘best friend’ and has ‘been by my side through some of the most difficult parts of my life’.

Their relationship gained global attention, however, following a 2020 episode of Pinkett Smith’s talk show, Red Table Talk. During the episode, The Matrix Resurrections actress discussed her ‘entanglement’ with August Alsina that took place in 2016 when she and Smith were separated. ‘I wasn’t sure I was ever going to speak to you again,’ Smith admitted in the conversation. ‘[Marriage] ain’t for the weak at heart. There are just certain things that you have to go through. I wish it could be all magic and miracles.’

From that point on, they have been unabashedly candid about how their relationship exists in a grey area, but they have no plans to formally split up. In 2018, Smith revealed that he and his wife no longer say that they are married. ‘We refer to ourselves as life partners,’ he explained on TIDAL’s Rap Radar podcast. ‘There are no deal breakers. There’s nothing she could do – ever. Nothing that would break our relationship. She has my support till death, you know what I mean, and it feels so good to get to that space where you’re not complaining and worrying and demanding that a person be a certain thing.’

Then in Smith’s memoir, Will, which came out in 2021, he went into further detail about the infamous entanglement and how it sparked long-term change in their relationship. ‘Our marriage wasn’t working,’ he wrote. ‘We could no longer pretend. We were both miserable and clearly something had to change.’

‘Jada never believed in conventional marriage,’ he continued, ‘she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relationship perfection.’ The actor concluded that ‘marriage for us can’t be a prison’ and that their newfound dynamic is ‘the highest definition of love’.

Lest we forget the Oscars in 2022, when that high definition of love was put to the test. After host Chris Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith starring in G.I Jane 2 because of her shaved head, Smith stormed on stage and slapped him round the face before shouting, ‘Get my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth’ across the room. The ill-judged joke hit a nerve because Pinkett Smith has alopecia, a health condition that causes hair loss and has no cure.

It was a gesture that left the room dumbfounded and Smith has been banned from the Academy Awards for ten years. At that point, however, they still presented as a couple, but it has since transpired that they had been living separately for six years.

Now an insider says ‘call it what you want’ but they are both ‘living their own lives’. They don’t refer to each other as husband and wife, but they are still married. They don’t live together, but they are life partners. They don’t prescribe to society’s one size fits all definition of marriage or have any set rules, but they are not necessarily in an open relationship.

Of course, this dynamic is going to pique interest, but is it also possible that their ever-changing party line is a deliberate tactic to confuse people? Not to keep us speculating, per se, but to remind us that we will never fully understand how their relationship works or what it entails, because it’s none of our business anyway.