Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Will and Jada Pinkett Smith's Marriage

After over 20 years together in the Hollywood spotlight, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are still going strong (they'll celebrate their 22nd anniversary this December!) . The power couple has proven that they're a force to be reckoned with, navigating ups and downs ranging from creative collaborations to hurtful rumors — not to mention some truly questionable fashion choices in the 90s. While Will and Jada may sometimes come off as a bit unconventional, the couple doesn't shy away from honesty when it comes to their marriage, and they remain an indestructible team more than two decades after they first said "I do." Take a look back on their relationship over the last two decades to see exactly how they make things work.

The pair first met back in 1994 when 19-year-old Jada auditioned to play Will's girlfriend on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She didn't get the role because the casting crewing thought she was too short — Will is 6'2" and she's 5'.

The two didn't become a couple until 1995, when Will was going through a divorce from his first wife, Sheree Zampino. Will and Zampino were separated at the time, and Jada later confessed that she wishes she hadn't started dating Will until the divorce was finalized. In an episode of her Facebook video series, Red Table Talk, Jada said, "Because I did not understand marriage, I did not understand divorce...I probably should have fell back."

The couple got engaged in November of 1996, although there aren't many details about how Will popped the question. "One day we got engaged, and the next day we found out we were pregnant," Jada told People.

The two tied the knot on New Year's Eve in the last few hours of 1997 at the Cloisters in Jada's hometown of Baltimore. In a recent episode of Red Table Talk, Jada revealed that the secretive wedding was "horrible" for her, as she was three months pregnant and wasn't feeling well. "I went crying down the freaking aisle," she said.

A few months after getting married, Will and Jada became new parents. Jada gave birth to a baby boy, their son Jaden, in Los Angeles. He was her first child and Smith's second, after his son Trey from his first marriage.

Not long after Jaden was born, Jada announced she was expecting her second child. "I was starting to wean Jaden, and I'd only had one cycle, so I thought I had some time. Then I got my surprise," Jada told Fit Pregnancy.

Jada gave birth to Willow on October 31, 2000. "Jaden and Willow have always been different," she shared on an episode of Red Table Talk, adding, "A lot of people think that it came from my rearing, but no, it just so happened that that’s how they came into the world and I had to get in order. I had to be open enough to receive it."

Jada and Will are pictured here at game three of the NBA finals between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. The couple are often spotted in the audience together at Sixers games.

In 2004, the couple worked together to write the television series All of Us, which was a sitcom loosely based on their family. It went on to air for four reasons. During that same year, they founded the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, which helps develop educational projects and family welfare for inner city youth.

2004 was the year that rumors began to fly about the two splitting up. Will addressed them by stating, "There is not now, never has been, and there never will be any trouble in paradise."

In an interview, Will referred to Jada as the leader of the family. "Just like in my house when I was growing up, I knew that my mother was the center," he shared. "If Mommy is straight, then everybody else will be. I am very clear at home that Jada’s physical, mental, spiritual health and comfort comes first."

In 2005, Will spoke to The Daily Mail about their apparent open marriage. "Our perspective is, you don't avoid what's natural. You're going to be attracted to people." Smith says he was forced to admit he had sexual feelings for someone else after working with Eva Mendes on the film Hitch.

Planning special outings is one way to keep the romance alive — and Will Smith is no stranger to that gesture. He once planned a totally over-the-top surprise for Jada's birthday: "She came home to an empty house and a DVD taped to the door. It was me saying, 'Hey, baby, you don’t know what’s happening but just go upstairs. There are clothes laid out on the bed, and there will be a car outside in 20 minutes.' The car took her to the airport, she got on the plane, and it brought her to San Francisco to a restaurant that she had been reading about," he said.

In an episode of Red Table Talk, Will spoke about a party they went to early on in their relationship where Jada had cursed at him. From that moment on, the two decided that they would never communicate while angry — instead, they would collect themselves, then talk it out after they'd calmed down.

In a 2007 interview with Redbook, Jada said that communication is key to her and Will's successful marriage. "The ritual Will and I have is to talk about everything," she said.

In 2008, the two celebrated 10 years of marriage. Will spoke about their marriage on The Ellen Degeneres Show, declaring that divorce isn't an option for them: "What I found is divorce just can’t be an option. It’s really that simple. And I think that’s the problem with L.A. – there are so many options. So a huge part of the success for [Jada] and I is that we just removed the other options."

That same year, they opened a $1.2 million school in Calabasas, California called New Village Academy. At the time, Will said, "There are just very powerful educational concepts that we believe in, and we feel like we want to design the system that revolutionizes public education."

In a 2009 interview with Redbook, Jada revealed her secrets for keeping their marriage exciting. "Establish relationships with family members or friends and take turns with each other's kids so you can make that time for yourselves," Smith suggested. "It doesn't take a lot of money — wallets are tight right now — so just simple stuff. A night walk? Man, do I love those."

Will and Jada were chosen to co-host the 16th annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway for their work promoting global peace. They said they "were both humbled and honored" to take on the role.

In an interview with Oprah, the couple called their marriage a "business plan." Will said, "If you don't have a purpose for your relationship, if you don't have a place that you're going, something that you want to accomplish, something that you want to do, you can really get lost in the murk of the journey." Jada added that they had to merge their "two independent visions" together as one.

In 2011, Will and Jada began to face some intense rumors that they were splitting up due to implications that Jada was having an affair with Marc Anthony. It even prompted Will's son, Trey, to refute the gossip on Twitter. "Did #WillandJada split? No they did NOT split! False information … its not true RETWEET!!!," he wrote.

The couple eventually released their own statement on the report, saying, "Although we are reluctant to respond to these types of press reports, the rumors circulating about our relationship are completely false. We are still together, and our marriage is intact."

Despite their apparently happy public appearances, rumors about marital troubles persisted in 2012. "We make the effort to always put the family first," Will told People. "Being there for each other and being present with our kids is the most important thing. I take being a parent very seriously." Jada called the rumors "ridiculous."

In an interview with People, Jada said the couple would mark their 15-year wedding anniversary with a particularly understated celebration. "You know, we celebrate throughout the year. But usually on our wedding anniversary, we give ourselves a high-five and go, ‘We survived another year, homie! Yeah!’"

In a 2013 appearance on Huffington Post's Facebook Live, Jada addressed the open nature of their marriage. 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.' Because at the end of the day, Will is his own man. 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."

Jada took to her Facebook page to further clarify, explaining that she and Will love and trust one another. At the end, she wrote, "Here is how I will change my statement...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."

The couple's New Village Leadership Academy School closed in 2013 due to allegations that the school was steeped in Scientology, with parents complaining about the alleged religious slant and curriculum.

In a post on her Facebook page, Jada shared that Will takes pictures of her while she's sleeping. She wrote, "I discovered the sexiest secret the other day. My husband takes pics of me in my sleep. He has a whole stash he revealed to me and I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of myself through his eyes."

Amidst even more divorce rumors, Will took to his Facebook this time to reassure fans that they weren't true. "I promise you all — if I ever decide to divorce my Queen — I SWEAR I'll tell you myself!" he wrote.

At VH1's Dear Mama event in 2016, Will fondly recalled starting a family with his wife. "Jada is magical. Part of why I love her is things happen in a way they shouldn't happen, they shouldn't go that way. She has this magical power," he said.

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Jada told Andy Cohen that the craziest rumor she had ever heard about her and Will was that they were swingers. "Yo, I wish!" she added.

Leah Remini told The Daily Beast that both Jada and Will were Scientologists. "I know Jada's in. She's been in Scientology a long time. I never saw Will [Smith] there, but I saw Jada at the Celebrity Centre," she said.

Jada responded to the Scientology rumors on Twitter, saying, "I have studied Dianetics, and appreciate the merits of Study Tech… but I am not a Scientologist."

On Tidal's Rap Radar podcast, Will revealed that the two don't even say they're married anymore. "We refer to ourselves as life partners, where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There's no deal breakers," he explained. "There's nothing she could do — ever. Nothing [...] would break our relationship. She has my support till death and it feels so good to get to that space."

In one episode of Jada's Red Table Talk, the couple came clean about their marital troubles. A year later, Jada talked about that on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She explained, "What was really important about Will and I doing that show together — two things: First of all was really to kind of get rid of the idea that people in the public eye have perfect relationships. We were kind of sick of living up to that. We were real sick of it. And then second of all, really having myself and Will come and talk about our relationship — sometimes you see just women do it alone or you just see a guy do it."