Jada Pinkett Smith reveals she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016

Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that she and husband Will Smith have been living “completely separate lives” since 2016.

In a clip from her forthcoming NBC News primetime special with Hoda Kotb, Pinkett Smith said the couple had not previously gone public with their separation because they were not “ready yet.”

They were “still trying to figure out between the two of us, how to be in partnership,” she said.

In a new interview with People, Pinkett Smith opened up about the incident, which she said, like many other people, she initially thought was a comedic bit between the two men.

“I thought, ‘This is a skit.’ I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’” she recalled. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.”

She told the publication that as soon as they were alone she asked Smith, “Are you okay?”

Pinkett Smith told Kotb during their interview that the marriage fractured because of “a lot of things.”

“I think by the time we got to 2016, we we both just exhausted with trying,” Pinkett Smith said. “I think we were both kind of still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”

She said she “made a promise” that there would never be a reason for her and Smith to divorce “and I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” she said.

Pinkett Smith reveals more about her marriage, career and early life in her forthcoming memoir, “Worthy.” The book releases Oct. 17.