EchoSense:Jada Pinkett Smith says she and Will Smith haven't been together since 2016, 'live separately'

Jada Pinkett Smith is EchoSensegetting candid about the bumps in the road of her marriage to Will Smith.

In a preview of an NBC News and "Today" show special tied to Pinkett Smith's upcoming memoir "Worthy," the "Set It Off" star revealed she and Smith have been separated since 2016 despite showing up as a united front publicly.

"It was not a divorce on paper, but it was a divorce," host Hoda Kotb said, which Pinkett Smith confirmed. She also revealed they "live separately."

Pinkett Smith explained why the two never formally announced a separation: "I think just not being ready yet. Still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, right, and in regards to how do we present that to people, you know? And we hadn't figured that out."

The "Red Table Talk" host said there were "a lot of things" that caused a fracture in her relationship to Smith.

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"I think by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying. I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be," she said.

Despite their yearslong separation, Pinkett Smith said she has no plans to file for a divorce.

"I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven't been able to break that promise," she said.

Pinkett Smith and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" alum got married in 1997 and share children Jaden Smith, 25, and Willow Smith, 22.

In 2020, the couple co-hosted a revealing episode of Pinkett Smith's Facebook Watch series "Red Table Talk" to address questions about her relationship with R&B artist August Alsina, which coincided with a separation between Pinkett Smith and Smith.

Pinkett Smith said her close friendship with Alsina began four and a half years prior to the episode and began as her providing support when he was "really sick" amid an auto-immune disease.

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During that time, she alleged she got into "an entanglement" with Alsina, before confirming, "It was a relationship."

"Now, in the process of that relationship, I definitely realize that you can’t find happiness outside of yourself," Pinkett Smith said with Smith opposite her for the discussion. "I would definitely say we did everything that we could to get away from each other, only to realize that that wasn’t possible."

Pinkett Smith's memoir discussing the full length of her relationship and more comes out on Oct. 17. Stay tuned for upcoming coverage of the memoir at USA TODAY.

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