By Amber Raiken

Jada and Will Smith have been separated since 2016 yet remain ‘together’ in their own way. My interview with The Independent UK decodes this unique relationship model that has outsiders greatly confused.

Amber writes, “Longtime Hollywood couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smithsent shockwaves around the world this week when the Red Table Talk host revealed that she and the actor have been separated since 2016. Both Jada and Will have previously doubled down on their stance against getting a divorce, but her recent reveal about their lengthy separation poses a new question: When should couples just get a divorce?

In an interview with People on 10 October, Jada shared that during the 2022 Academy Awards – when Will slapped Chris Rock after he cracked a joke about Jada’s appearance – the pair had actually been separated for six years. “We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,” she explained, while promoting her new memoir, Worthy. “We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”

Speaking to The Independent, New York City-based relationship expert Susan Winter highlighted the jarring differences between a separation and divorce. When it comes to divorce, Hollywood couples can notably get involved in lengthy legal processes, from dividing financial assets to creating child custody agreements. Although we don’t know the terms of Jada and Will’s separation, Winter believes that they’re showcasing a non-conventional relationship that’s not familiar to the public. Will and Jada’s dynamic includes living in separate homes, but it could be a choice that’s for the better.
“It’s an LAT partnership, meaning ‘living apart together,’” Winter said. “While everybody is at a different point as to why they are doing this, the centre point is the same: the preservation of the partnership is paramount. Separations can also be beneficial if both individuals are working on themselves and have the mutual goal of reuniting, or making their relationship better. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that their improved relationship will result in them living together again.”

“What’s pivotal here is, what was the agreement? Did we agree to separate to work on ourselves for the purpose of coming back together again?” Winter said. “Did we agree to separate and just be alone for a while and not have that discussion? And in the second case, if you have an affair, sometimes it can bring you back to the original person. You can get whatever you need to achieve or gain a different perspective, allowing you to decide if you want to come back or leave for good.”

Ultimately, the public will never fully know what “heavy-duty work” Will and Jada are doing in their relationship, and according to Winter, it’s not necessarily any of our business. Still, she believes that their choice to separate is something fluid and outside of the traditional marriage design – an evolving model that could also come to serve other couples. If Will and Jada have been spending seven years apart as a married couple, why would they decide to go back to living in the same household?

“They’re in the rough with a machete, carving a new path for themselves,” Winter said. “Why would they say: ‘Hey, let’s go back to the house and just relax?’ They’re really exploring something vastly different. It doesn’t end up that you go back into that little box of ‘this is a marriage, we’re living together’. It just doesn’t do that.”

Every relationship is different, living in the public eye or not. Although living separately may not be an issue for some couples, there can still be some major signs that it’s time to leave a relationship behind. “When there is no stone left unturned, or when they have tried every single combination possible to make the relationship function and yet it doesn’t, that’s the time to pull the plug,” Winter added. “They’ve done their individual work and they have done the work together and ended up in the same place.””

Continue Reading: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/will-smith-jada-separation-divorce-b2429576.html