Will Smith, Jada ‘staying together forever’ after 2016 split

Another update from Jada Pinkett Smith.

The “Girls Trip” actress revealed in an upcoming clip from “The Drew Barrymore Show” that she and Will Smith will be “staying together forever” following their quiet separation in 2016.

“I feel like maybe your and his shadow separated in a way in this book, whether they stay together forever or not,” Drew Barrymore said in the preview for her show, which is set to air Tuesday. “It sounds like you’re staying together forever.” 

“We’re staying together forever,” Pinkett Smith, 52, responded. “I tried. We tried.”

The “Gotham” alum will be appearing on the show to promote her novel “Worthy,” which hit bookshelves and Amazon on Oct. 4.

Last month, Pinkett Smith revealed that she and the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum had been living separate lives for seven years during an interview with “Today” show co-host Hoda Kotb.

“I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” Pinkett Smith told Kotb, 59. “I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be.”

Despite living separately, the duo claim that divorce was never an option for them.

“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever,” she continued. “And I just haven’t been able to break that promise.”

During her highly publicized book tour, Pinkett Smith revealed that she was shocked when Smith, 55, called her his “wife” moments before slapping Chris Rock for making an alopecia joke at the 2022 Academy Awards.

“First of all, I’m really shocked, because mind you, I’m not there. We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,” she told Kotb. “I’m really worried for Will because I don’t know what’s going on.” 

According to Business Insider, the incident — dubbed “the slap heard around the world” — reaffirmed the couple’s marriage.

“When I was sitting at the Oscars, it clicked in, I was like, ‘Oh snap, you hit Chris,’” Pinkett Smith said at an event, per the outlet.

“I was like, ‘I’m riding with you. I didn’t come into this place as your wife, but I’m leaving here as your wife because we got a storm we’re gonna have to deal with together. I am NOT going to leave your side,’” she continued. “I said, ‘I’m not gonna be able to get away from this dude. I really love him.’”

Smith, who stayed relatively quiet on the constant barrage of revelations, claimed the book “kind of woke [him] up” to the fact that his partner was more “resilient, clever and compassionate than [he’d] understood.” 

“When you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life, a sort of emotional blindness sets in,” Smith wrote in an email to the New York Times. “And you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.”

According to a source close to the “Men in Black” actor, Smith had been “trying to stay busy” during the promotional book tour.

“He’s trying not to let any outside noise impact him,” the source continued. “Will loves Jada and feels like he has always had her back and always will. He has been trying to be supportive, while also taking care of himself.”

The insider added that Will and Jada’s children, Jaden and Willow Smith, reportedly felt “bad” for their dad too.

“They know he has been going through a lot lately and this isn’t helping,” the source told Entertainment Tonight. “They wish some of their family’s private matters remained private.”