Jada Pinkett Smith sent the media and fans into a dizzying tailspin when she revealed that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016 despite appearing as husband and wife in public.
The actress, who is promoting her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” has also dished on the infamous Oscars slap, her “soulmate” connection to the late Tupac Shakur, and more in revealing interviews with NBC News and People. Responses to her revelations have reignited vitriol for Pinkett Smith, especially among those who believe her tell-alls have further damaged the box office star’s reputation and his public perception. One of the critics is Stephen A. Smith.
On the Friday (Oct. 13) episode of his eponymous YouTube show, he unleashed on the 52-year-old. The “First Take” host began, “Let me tell y’all what Will Smith does not deserve: He does not deserve what Jada Pinkett Smith has done to him.”
He continued, “Now I know people very, very close to Jada Pinkett Smith, and I am not going to utter a disrespectful word about her. That’s not where I’m going. It’s deeper than that. There are a few questions that Jada Pinkett Smith deserves to be asked to her. Where’s your compassion? Where’s your decency? Where is your respect for a man you still acknowledge as your husband? Where is the respect for a man you walked down the aisle with and pledged your life to in 1997 for better or worse, for rich or [for] poorer, in sickness and in health, ’til death do you part?”
Stephen, who has never wed, implied that Pinkett Smith has fallen short of honoring her wedding vows with some of her remarks — e.g., speaking on her entanglement with August Alsina and stating that she was shocked that Will referred to her as his wife after slapping Chris Rock for joking about her shaved head. For the latter, the Emancipation actor has taken a public pummeling.
“Somebody gotta say it to Jada plain and simple: Go to the Torah, go to the Bible, go to the holy Quran, pick whatever you want. Let’s talk about the role of a wife, at least from the perspective of just sparing him,” added Stephen. “I’m not getting in the right or wrong; it’s none of my business… I know it is uncomfortable and grotesquely unfair to emasculate your husband publicly! Publicly. He’s Will Smith. How much smaller do you want to make him? How could you do this? It’s exceeded cruelty.”
Watch Stephen’s full comments below.