Jada Pinkett, the wife of Will Smith, the US actor, says they have been separated since 2016.

In a recent interview with Hoda Kotb on NBC News, Jada opened up about the situation of her marriage to Will.

The actress admitted that seven years ago, she and Will decided “to live completely separate lives” after being “too exhausted with trying”.

Jada said although it was not written “on paper”, it was still a divorce and they have been apart since then.

She, however, disclosed that she had considered a “legal divorce” but she could not “go through with it”.

She said this was because of “a promise” she made to her husband to always “work through” their marital problems.

“Why our relationship fractured that is a lot of things and by the time we got to 2016, we were too exhausted with trying,” she said.

“I think we were both still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.

“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. That we will work through whatever and I just have not been able to break that promise. We live separately.”

In another interview with People, Jada said she and Will are “still figuring out” the state of their marriage.

She said she and Will had been separated for six years before the Oscars in 2022.

“We are still figuring it out. We have been doing some really heavy duty work together,” she said.

“We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”

The actress tied the knot with Smith in 1997. The union has so far been blessed with two children.

Their marriage has been in the news on several occasions for controversial reasons.

In 2020, they were in the spotlight over reports of Jada’s affair with August Alsina, the US rapper.

They also made the headlines in March after Smith slapped Chris Rock, the comedian, at the 2022 Oscars.