Jada Pinkett Smith Brought Herself to the Red Table, As Promised
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The world has been balanced on a knife’s edge as quite literally everyone, everywhere waited patiently for Jada Pinkett Smith to, as she promised, “bring herself to the Red Table” over allegations that she had an affair or a fling or an “open relationship” with singer August Alsina. In the week following his revelation, during an interview with the Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee, the rumors have varied wildly. Some say she exploited Alsina at a particularly vulnerable time in his life. Others believe she and Will Smith have an open marriage, despite them never explicitly stating that publicly themselves. But through it all, the Smith family has remained silent. Until now! In a new episode of Red Table Talk, released Friday, they say plenty about the “entanglement,” aka relationship, without really saying anything at all.
First off, neither Will nor Jada ever directly name their dealings with August Alsina. Instead, they throw out a list of words to talk around it: “Entanglement,” “interaction,” “transgression.” According to the timeline provided by the Smiths, August came into their lives “a few years ago,” when he was dealing with both mental health issues and addiction. Jada is extremely upfront in saying her motive was to “fix” Alsina. She repeats this frequently. “It was a joy to help heal somebody,” she says when her husband asks what she was looking for. It’s also revealed that the timeframe of this “transgression” with Alsina occurred during the Smiths’ separation, which they revealed on a separate episode of Red Table Talk in 2018. At the time, they described the separation as getting “out of each other’s way” so they could rebuild their relationship.
So the foundation of this episode is that something happened, but they won’t say what. Jada wanted to help Alsina, but she was also “hurting” in her marriage to Will. They also stress that they were never looking to reveal what had happened with Alsina and that they purposely “said nothing” in the aftermath because there was still a lot of “healing to be done.” (There’s always a lot of healing that needs to be done with these two, isn’t there?) Anyway, at one point, Will asks Jada what she wanted from the “entanglement,” to which she responds: “I was looking to feel good. It had been so long since I felt good.” Clearly! Here is when she says it was “a joy to help heal somebody,” although I wouldn’t necessarily describe bringing a much younger person into your relationship to mentor them, then pursuing a relationship with them after separating from your husband, as “healing.” But I am also not at the Red Table, so what do I really know.
It’s also interesting to note that Will calls it a “transgression” more than once, even if they were separated. It undermines the overall narrative they are trying to paint, which is that they separated to heal their marriage, and this was a necessary function of that process. Jada sees it differently: “I don’t look at it as a transgression at all. Through that journey, I learned so much about myself.” She adds, “I was really able to do some deep healing.” Again with the healing! Notably, it does not seem like Alsina was under the impression that Will saw his relationship with Jada as a “transgression,” since he claimed in his interview with Angela Yee that Will had given his blessing to Jada and Alsina as their relationship developed amid the “transformation” in the Smiths’ marriage. Alsina said then:
“He gave me his blessing and I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life and I truly and really, really deeply loved and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to it. I gave my full self to it so much so to the point that I can die right now and be ok with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody.”
Also interesting is where Jada and Alsina’s stories diverge. He told Yee that he has “nothing but love” for Will and Jada, and thinks of them as “beautiful people,” going so far as to say that his split with Jada “butchered” him. Jada, meanwhile, describes the onus of their breakup as falling on Alsina: “He decided to break all communication with me, which was totally understandable.” In reconciliation, she also describes herself as “deeply grateful” for “this whole process between you and I. We have really gotten to that new place of unconditional love.” Will, conversely, says it’s a “miracle” that he is speaking to Jada again.
So what’s really the truth? Alsina claims a blessing was given, while Will sees her relationship with Alsina as a “transgression” that was worthy of never speaking to his wife over. Jada believes she wanted to “heal” Alsina, which is why she pursued a relationship with him, but in 2018, said the “whole” Smith family “has been on this journey with August towards his healing.” But early in the Red Table Talk episode, claims her and Will can laugh about it now because this happened “years ago.” These two sure talk a lot but don’t really say much!
As of press time, Alsina has not responded to the allegations made concerning his relationship with the Smith family. This blog will be updated if, and when, he does.