WILL Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock after the Oscars host mocked his wife’s short hairstyle by comparing her to G.I. Jane.
Moments after, the furious King Richard actor yelled “keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth” and appeared to break down in tears.
Will, 53, has fiercely defended his relationship with Jada Pinkett-Smith in the past after revealing they were in an unconventional open marriage.
It followed Aussie actor Rebel Wilson’s joke at the BAFTAs that the Fresh Prince star’s “best performance” was “being OK with all his wife’s boyfriends” earlier this month.
At the time, Will responded: “There’s never been infidelity in our marriage. Jada and I talk about everything, and we have never surprised one another with anything, ever.”
In September he ended years of cheating speculation, swinging claims and affair rumours by revealing he and Jada, 50, are in an open relationship.
The Hollywood stars started to explore polygamy after they were “both miserable” and realised “clearly something had to change”.
Will confirmed they both had flings, after Jada openly discussed her “entanglement” with rapper August Alsina in 2020.
The couple share two children, Jaden and Willow, while Jada is stepmother to Trey, Will’s son from a previous marriage.
In the past, they have alluded to having an “unconventional” union, with Jada once saying they are free to “do whatever they want” in their “grown relationship”.
During their 24 years of marriage, Will and Jada have both been linked to other celebrities – but denied claims of infidelity.
Here we dig into those affair rumours, swinging claims and Jada’s toyboy tryst.
Will’s harem dream
It seems the Fresh Prince star may always have been open to less traditional relationships after he admitted he dreamed of dating multiple famous women simultaneously when he was a teenager.
Will told GQ: “The idea of travelling with 20 women that I loved and took care of and all of that, it seemed like a really great idea.”
People on the list included fellow actor Halle Berry and American ballerina Misty Copeland.
However, for many years he felt shame for fantasising about a harem.
Will believed it stemmed from his “Christian upbringing” which led him to fear his “thoughts were sins”.
He eventually sought the help of intimacy coach Michaela Boehm – and now he thinks very differently.
He said: “It was OK to think Halle is fine. It doesn’t make me a bad person that I’m married and I think Halle is beautiful.”
And after he “played it out a little bit” with the therapist, he concluded a harem would not be as great as he imagined.
“I was like, ‘That would be horrific. That would be horrific.’ I was like, ‘Can you imagine how miserable?’” Will recalled.
Affair blessing and swinging rumours
In Will’s interview with GQ last year, he revealed his wife “never believed in a conventional marriage” due to her upbringing.
He said: “Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship… so she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up.”
While rumours of infidelity have surrounded the Smiths’ marriage for years, Jada appeared to give the green light for Will to cheat in an interview with HuffPost in 2013.
She said: “I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay’.
“I’m here as his partner, but he is his own man. He has to decide who he wants to be and that’s not for me to do for him. Or vice versa.”
She later posted on Facebook that they have a “grown” marriage and said she too can “do whatever she wants”.
Jada wrote: “Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want, because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship… this means we have a GROWN one.”
During an interview with Howard Stern in 2015, Jada added: “Look I’m not here to be anybody’s watcher. I’m not his watcher. He’s a grown man.”
Jada seemed to approve of extramarital affairs in 2017 when she told an interviewer the “craziest” rumour she’d heard about herself.
She told Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen: “The craziest rumour? That Will and I are swingers. That’s the craziest one. It’s constant! And I’m like, ‘Yo I wish! I wish!’”
In 2020 the Smiths hit the headlines when Jada spoke publicly about her “entanglement” with August Alsina, a rapper and family friend.
She had a relationship with the then-27-year-old during “a difficult time” in their marriage in 2017, when they had “basically broken up”.
During an episode of Red Table Talk last year, Jada said: “As time went on, I got into a different type of entanglement with August.”
During the online show, Will admitted he and Jada had been separated for a “period of time” before he added: “I was done with you.”
Jada rebuked August’s previous claims the Men In Black actor had given him permission to sleep with her
At the time, he said: “We sat down as two men, like, ‘Yo, boom. You have my love. You have my blessing,’ and that’s the situation as a whole.”
Jada responded: “The only person that can give permission in that circumstance is myself.”
The actress believed her toyboy’s comments were misunderstood and said the musician only “wanted to make it clear he was not a homewrecker”.
That wasn’t the only time questions were raised about Jada having an extramarital relationship.
Will recently admitted to having had sexual relationships outside of his marriage but refused to reveal with whom.
Not many people have been linked to the star but in 2015, rumours spread about an affair with Margot Robbie – which she vehemently denied.
Speculation was rife about their “chemistry” on and off set while they filmed Focus – especially during raunchy sex scenes.
Later, Margot told E! News: “He’s got this really lovely breath spray, it tastes like Christmas. It’s like he’s just eaten a candy cane.”
Will also revealed his wife had commented on his onscreen beau’s appearance ahead of them filming together.
He said: “When Margot got hired for the gig… she saw that Margot was young and hot and in shape.
“She said, ‘Boy don’t embarrass me. Get in shape now.’ She was like, ‘Don’t let that girl smash you onscreen.’”
Both actors have denied all claims of a romance between them and Margot previously stated she would never date a fellow actor because “they are trouble” at a 2015 press junket.
She has been married to British assistant director Tom Ackerley since December 2016, after meeting him on the set of Suite Française in 2013.
This wasn’t the only time Margot was forced to deny she and Will were more than friends.
Rumours re-emerged after a photo of them bearing their chests in a photobooth surfaced.
An eyewitness claimed to have seen Will carrying the then-23-year-old back to his trailer after the snaps were taken.
The unnamed individual claimed they were “hanging all over each other” and skipped an after-party to be alone with each other.
At the time, Margot tweeted: “There’s absolutely no truth to the ridiculous rumour. It’s disappointing that goofing around on-set could be taken so out of context.”
Despite her protests, she struggled to shake off the claims of an affair and in 2018 she was probed again about her friendship with Will.
During an episode of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, she chose to drink a shot of alcohol rather than discuss the actor.
‘Monogamy’s not perfection’
Shortly after rumours about Margot and Will emerged in 2013, Jada gave a cryptic speech that hinted at them having a non-traditional relationship.
She said: “When you’re going through a storm with your spouse… stop thinking about what you ‘believe’ a husband or wife should be.”
Later, Will claimed the secret to a happy marriage was putting the other person first.
He told E!: “We had to shift the paradigm of the relationship – and we did… There’s one relationship to have with people and that’s friendship.
“So that’s a relationship in which you want what is best for them at all times and you’re willing to suffer for them to have the thing that is in their best interests.”
In Will’s GQ interview, he seemed to elaborate on that statement by claiming that their open marriage was integral to them staying together.
He said: “For the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.
