In Wednesday’s episode of Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith opened up about her intimacy with her husband Will Smith, saying it’s difficult to maintain a sex life with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air star.
The 50-year-old host was joined by her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and fellow actress, Gwyneth Paltrow, to discuss the challenges of maintaining a good sex life and why it’s indispensable to talk about your sexual desires with your lover, E! News reported.
“It’s hard,” said Jada. “The thing Will and I talk about a lot is the journey. We started in this at a very young age, you know, 22 years old. That’s why the accountability part really hit for me because I think you expect your partner to know [what you need], especially when it comes to sex. It’s like, ‘Well, if you love me, you should know. If you love me, you should read my mind.’ That’s a huge pitfall.”
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Paltrow chimed in, saying, “Isn’t it weird, though? It’s like someone doesn’t read your mind and we feel crushed.”
“Crushed!” Jada agreed, before adding: “You tell me what you need. Tell me what you want, and on top of it, I know that I have to be accountable to do the same…I really try. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s deeply healthy, and I think around sex, because it’s something that we don’t talk about and there’s so much fantasy around it.”
Though Will and Jada have been married for well over two decades, their relationship hasn’t been all rosy – which isn’t unusual. A number of rumors have also made their marriage an occasional topic of discussion.
Last year, singer August Alsina claimed he had an affair with Jada, and Will had given him the go-ahead to be romantically involved with his wife. And following the revelation, Jada, in a Red Table Talk with her husband, said she had an “entanglement” with the Benediction singer while she and Will were temporarily separated.
In a September interview with GQ magazine, Smith also revealed he and his wife have an open marriage, and they were at liberty to be sexually involved with other people.
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage,” the King Richard actor said. “Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship. So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
He added: “We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison. And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
