Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith: A Timeline of Their Evolved Relationship

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith may have one of the longest lasting marriages in Hollywood — but they’ve technically been separated for years.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum met the actress in 1994, but the two did not begin dating until the following year. They married on New Year’s Eve in 1997. Nearly 20 years later, however, Pinkett Smith admitted that she regretted beginning her relationship with Smith while he was still married to his ex-wife, Sheree Zampino.

"Because I did not understand marriage, I did not understand divorce," she said during the 2018 premiere episode of Red Table Talk, which featured Zampino as a guest. "I probably should have fell back."

Despite their rocky beginnings, the two women bonded after Pinkett Smith met Trey, Zampino's son with Smith. In July 1998, Smith and Pinkett Smith welcomed son Jaden. Their daughter, Willow, followed in 2000.

While the couple became a model for marriage among celebrities — frequently praising each other and sharing their joy in the public eye throughout their two-plus decades of marriage — they dealt with drama behind the scenes. In 2020, Pinkett Smith revealed that she and Smith had separated in 2015 — and she had an “entanglement” with singer August Alsina. Though she and Smith briefly reconciled, the Scream 2 actress admitted in 2023 that she and Smith have been separated since 2016.

Scroll down to revisit the highs and lows of the Smiths’ decades-long marriage.