Jada and Will both agreed the failed 40th bash was a "turning point" in their marriage. Photo / Facebook
Jada and Will both agreed the failed 40th bash was a "turning point" in their marriage. Photo / Facebook
This story was one of Herald Entertainment’s most read in 2022
A segment from Jada Pinkett Smith’s talk show has emerged amid renewed interest in her unusual marriage to Will Smith, in which the star admits she was furious over a 40th birthday party organised by her husband.
The Red Table Talk clip sees the pair discussing the "hardest time" in their marriage with daughter Willow, 21, and Jada's mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, 68, with Will revealing Jada called her 40th a "ridiculous display" of Will's "own ego".
The couple eventually agree the event was a "turning point" in their marriage, leading to Jada's affair with 29-year-old musician August Alsina, who is set to release a tell-all book about the romance.
"I think the turning point in our relationship for me, happened when I turned 40," Jada began, revealing she suffered a "midlife crisis".
Will said he spent three years planning the party. Photo / Facebook
Agreeing, Will added that his wife's milestone birthday was also a "low point" for him, going on to recall how he had spent three years planning a birthday bash to "lift her out" of her slump.
"The day after her 37th birthday, I hired a team to orchestrate her 40th birthday," he told daughter Willow.
"I hired a documentary team, I traced mommy's family roots. Her 40th birthday was going to be my thing!"
Jada, rolling her eyes, chimed in: "It was going to be a splash."
The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air actor, who also hired R & B superstar Mary J Blige to perform at the party, went on: "It was going to be the thing that lifted her out of this midlife crisis. It was going to be my deepest most beautiful proclamation of love."
But for Jada, the party — which included never-before-heard tapes of her grandmother aired to the room — left her feeling overwhelmed and in need of "intimate" family time.
The unearthed clip sees Will looking despondent as they recalled the party flop. Photo / Facebook
It bubbled over into a huge fight, with Jada accusing her husband of making her birthday all about him.
As daughter Willow looked to her dad sympathetically, Will said of the saga: "Crushed, right? And to this day I know I was crushed because it was true. It wasn't a party for her."
In July 2020, the actress confirmed she was romantically involved with then-27-year-old singer August Alsina on an episode of Red Table Talk.
The couple openly discussed the issue, with Smith, at one point, saying to his wife, "I was done with yo a**. I was done with you. Marriages have that though."
Pinkett Smith then went on to detail exactly how the "entanglement" began.
"It all started with him just needing some help. Me wanting to help his health, his mental state," she explained.
"From there, you know, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August," Pinkett Smith said. Smith then urged his wife to clarify what she was saying. She replied with, "It was a relationship, absolutely."
Jada and Will both agreed the failed 40th bash was a "turning point" in their marriage. Photo / Facebook
It comes after another shocking unearthed clip sees Jada Pinkett Smith complain she never wanted to marry Will and hated their "horrible" wedding.
"I was under so much pressure, you know, being a young actress, being young, and I was just, like, pregnant and I just didn't know what to do," declared Pinkett Smith, 50, in a freshly exhumed snippet from her Red Table Talk Facebook series.
"I never wanted to be married."
She said she was "crying down the aisle" and was "forced" to wed the actor after she became pregnant with their first son together, Jaden, now 23.
All eyes have been on the pair since Smith's infamous Oscars smack-down of Chris Rock and the Academy's decision to ban him from the ceremony for 10 years.
