Originally appeared on E! Online
Will Smith is speaking out on his relationship with estranged wife and "best friend" Jada Pinkett Smith.
A week after the Red Table Talk host revealed she and the Oscar winner—who share kids Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22—have been quietly separated for seven years, Smith addressed where the couple stand.
While appearing at her Worthy book tour event in Baltimore, Md. on Oct. 18 alongside their kids, Smith said he wanted to come "and hold it down for you the way you have held it down for me," per the Baltimore Sun.
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He described their relationship as "very long and tumultuous" over the last 30 years. "We call it ‘brutiful,'" Smith continued. "It was brutal and beautiful at the same time."
At another point, the "Men in Black" star said their union has been a "sloppy public experiment in unconditional love," according to the Baltimore Banner.
Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith's Sweetest Pics
"As I stand here before you today, I am happier than I've ever been in my entire life," he shared. "I have achieved every single thing I have ever wanted in my entire life. There is not one thing left that I desire in this world—all of the awards, all of the money, the family—everything I've ever dreamed."
Explaining that his dreams were "largely built on the foundation of Jada's sacrifices," Smith credited her with supporting him both professionally and personally in their family life raising Willow, Jaden and Trey Smith, who he shares with ex Sheree Zampino.
"Can you show up and love somebody for the rest of your life, even when you don't agree with them?" Smith said. "Jada is the best friend I have ever had on this planet and I am going to show up for her and support her for the rest of my life."
Per the Baltimore Banner, Pinkett Smith smiled throughout his speech and called him "babe" as he wrapped up.
The "King Richard" star's heartfelt statement comes after Pinkett Smith shared that the two, who tied the knot in 1997, have been living "completely separate lives" since 2016. As she told Today host Hoda Kotb in an Oct. 11 preview from an upcoming NBC News primetime special, though the pair are still married legally, they are no longer involved romantically.
"Why it fractured—that's a lot of things," the Girls Trip actress shared. "By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be."
And while Pinkett Smith has considered filing for divorce, she admits there's still hesitation to sign off on their split officially.
"I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce," she noted. "We will work through whatever. I just haven't been able to break that promise."
Smith, 55, himself echoed a similar sentiment over the years, previously noting that "divorce can't be an option."
"With Jada, I stood up in front of God and said, 'Til death do us part,'" he told MTV News in 2006. "So there are two possible outcomes. One, we are going to be together 'til death, or two, I am dead."
For her part, Pinkett Smith, 52, remained firm in that belief, too.
"Here's the thing about Will and I, it's like, we are family, that's never going down, it's just not," the "Nutty Professor" star said during a 2018 appearance on Sway in the Morning. "Because we are family—take out all that whole marriage, relationship, crap—at the end of the day, Smith and I are family, I'm going to hold him down."
As she noted, "It doesn't matter, all that relationship and what people think, ideas of a husband and a partner and all that, man, whatever, at the end of the day, that's a man that can rely on me for the rest of his life, period."
Though the two have faced a couple bumps in the road publicly down the line—including Pinkett Smith confirming her relationship with August Alsina during the couple's separation and the aftermath of the 2022 Oscars ordeal—as Smith noted, they're committed to remaining by each other's side.
"We don't even say we're married anymore," the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star during a 2018 appearance on TIDAL's Rap Radar podcast. "We refer to ourselves as 'life partners,' where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There's no deal breakers."
