Originally appeared on E! Online
Will Smith knows Jada Pinkett Smith's bombshell memoir is worthy of all the praise.
After reading the book, "I applaud and honor you," he wrote in a letter to Jay Shetty, who relayed the message to Pinkett Smith on an upcoming episode of his podcast "On Purpose." "If I had read this book 30 years ago, I definitely would have hugged you more. I'll start now. Welcome to the author's club. I love you endlessly. Now go get some Merlot and take a rest."
"Worthy," which hits bookshelves Oct. 17, details Pinkett Smith's relationship with Tupac Shakur, how she overcame suicidal ideation, the Oscars slap felt around the world and the truth about her marriage to Smith, who she has been secretly separated from for seven years.
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For the actor, who wed Pinkett Smith in 1997, the tome was a bit of a wake-up call, he acknowledged in an email to the New York Times.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's Wildest Quotes About Each Other
"When you've been with someone for more than half of your life a sort of emotional blindness sets in," the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" alum wrote, noting that he hadn't realized just how on the edge she had lived. "You can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties."
And though they've been apart since 2016, with Pinkett Smith even moving out and buying her own home, the duo—who share kids Jaden Smith, 25, and Willow Smith, 22—have no plans to legally split.
"I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce," the "Red Table Talk" host said in the interview with Hoda Kotb. "We will work through whatever, and I just haven't been able to break that promise."
As for what ultimately drove them apart? Well...
"That's a lot of things," the 52-year-old told Kotb. "I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be."
