The Behavior Will Smith Refused To Tolerate In His Marriage With Jada Pinkett Smith

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have decided having an open marriage helps them thrive. In a 2021 interview with GQ, Will confirmed rumors that had dogged the couple for years by saying they gave up on monogamy when they realized their relationship wasn't working. "Marriage for us can't be a prison. And I don't suggest our road for anybody," he said. "But the experiences that the freedoms that we've given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love."

According to Will, his wife "never believed in conventional marriage" anyway, so by being open-minded and willing to experiment with non-monagamy, the two actors managed to strengthen their bond instead of simply giving up on their relationship — so much so that Will felt the need to defend Jada's honor at the Oscars when comedian Chris Rock cracked a joke about her shaved head. The repercussions Will suffered for storming the stage and slapping Rock were immense and have the potential to completely derail the star's acting career. He offered his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he was banned from attending the Oscars for a decade, per People.

"It was in the heat of the moment and it was him overreacting. He knows that, she knows that," an insider told Us Weekly of The Slap. Jada and Will have both admitted to losing their tempers in the past, and two fiery exchanges even threatened their marriage.

Will Smith told GQ that he and Jada Pinkett Smith realized they needed to make some major changes in their marriage when a heated argument made their daughter Willow break down in tears and plead for them to quit fighting. "We were both miserable," Will said.

It wasn't the only time a fight made them reevaluate their marriage. In an October 2018 "Red Table Talk" episode, Will recounted how he scolded Jada for cursing during a party when they were dating, saying that he responded to her use of the F-word by hitting her on the head with a newspaper and escorting her into another room. "I said, 'Jada, this is the deal: I grew up in a household where I watched my father punch my mother in the face, and I will not create a house, a space, an interaction with a person where there's profanity and violence,'" Will recalled. He even threatened to leave Jada if she continued to curse. Fast forward to 2022, and Will was burning down everything he worked so hard for by telling Chris Rock, "Keep my wife's name out your f****** mouth."

In his memoir, "Will," the Oscar-winner confessed that he considered killing his father by pushing him down the stairs to exact revenge for his mother's abuse, but Jada allegedly doesn't want Will to get violent on her behalf. "She didn't need protecting," a source told Us Weekly.