Jada Pinkett Smith has confirmed she did have a relationship with August Alsina while married to husband Will Smith – but said she and Will were separated at the time.
Speaking on an episode of Red Table Talk posted on Facebook Watch, the Scream 2 star – now back with Will – initially called the relationship ‘an entanglement’.
August claimed he and Jada had been in a relationship in an interview last month, and alleged Will, 51, had given him and his wife his blessing.
Speaking of the time in question, Will said on RTT: ‘We decided we were going to separate for a period of time, and you go figure out how to make yourself happy, and I’ll figure out how to make myself happy.’
‘We were over,’ Jada, 48, agreed. ‘From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August.’
Clarifying August’s claims that Will had given ‘permission’ for the relationship to go ahead, Jada continued: ‘One of the things I want to clear up that was kind of swirling in the press was you giving permission, which the only person who can give permission in that particular circumstance is myself.
‘But what August was trying to communicate – because I could actually see how he would perceive it as permission because we were separated amicably – I think he also wanted to make it clear that he’s not a homewrecker, which he’s not.’
When Jada later said ‘I got into an entanglement with August,’ Will pushed her, saying ‘”an entanglement”? A relationship!’ to which Jada replied: ‘It was a relationship, absolutely.’
Jada and Will are parents to Jaden, 22, and Willow, 19. Will is also a dad to Trey, 27, his son from a previous relationship.
August first spoke of the relationship last month, saying: ‘I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation. Due to the transformation from their marriage to their life partnership that they spoken on several times, and not involving romanticism, he gave me his blessing.’
Speaking to The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee to promote his YouTube documentary StateofEMERGEncy: The Rise of August Alsina, he continued: ‘I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life.
‘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.’
