When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscar Ceremony, the incident became another in a long line of controversies to hit the beleaguered family. They have been in the headlines a lot in the 2010s, and it hasn’t always been about positive news. The list includes a few seedy and somewhat strange moments.

From unique parenting methods to entanglements and airing their dirty laundry on Jada Pinkett Smith's streaming talk show Red Table Talk. Here we unpack some of those incidents and attempt to link them together in one stressor that causes their controversial behavior. We also show that while controversial, some of their methods work.

Was The Smith-Rock Slap Planned?

Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock has been making big headlines worldwide since it happened in March 2022. While it seemed like a hoax initially, these insinuations soon went out the window when Smith emotionally told Rock not to speak of his wife.

But there are reasons to believe that the slap was indeed choreographed. One rumor has it that Rock was pre-informed; another notes Smith was giving a wry smile in his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s direction while walking off stage. There is also no doubt that, with his talents, Smith could have pulled off not being livid without actually being it.

But The Urge To Do It Comes From Somewhere Else

Those who believe that it wasn’t a facade point to the fact that in 2020, Will Smith had to hear revelations that his wife, Jada, may have been having an affair with singer August Alsina. The revelation had come straight from Alsina.

This had been waiting a long time to be revealed since Alsina and Pinkett-Smith had been seen together on numerous occasions, including one time at the BET awards, where they turned a few heads when they arrived together. They always played it down as friends until Alsina did an interview in 2020.

But Alsina Had Been Hinting

Alsina had been hinting at something between him and Jada for a while. Subtle lyrics in his songs and a massive hint picked up by fans in his video for the song “Nunya.” But the Smith household let nothing known about there being trouble in their paradise.

Come to think of it; Smith has always said how Jada would be forthright about any change in feelings she may have. This was how he knew he was letting things slip. Mind you, when Jada and Alsina were seen together, Will was pretty busy with many projects.

Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag

In 2020 Alsina did an interview with "The Breakfast Club," a New York-based morning radio show. This was where he let out that he and Jada had been having an affair. It was a major revelation and an obvious scoop for the radio station, which is well known for its coverage of hip-hop gossip.

This was difficult for Jada to deny since they had been seen together a lot, and Alsina would have no reason to make this up. They were caught off-guard by this revelation and shocked into silence in the early period. Of course, this wasn’t helped by one part of the accusation.

It Made No Sense, But People Believed it Anyway

While Alsina said that he had been in a relationship with Jada Pinkett and was already rocking the boat, another part of his story made it even more strange yet astounding. Alsina tried to make it sound like it wasn’t an affair he was having with Jada.

He did this by saying that Will had permitted him to be with Jada and was in the loop about the relationship. As unbelievable as it sounds, the press and the world had no trouble believing this, especially since they knew how uniquely the Smiths ran their household.

The Interview Wasn’t Even About That Subject

The interview on “The Breakfast Club” wasn’t about his relationship with Jada. It was about his future album, and a documentary about him called ‘StateofEMERGEncy: The Rise OF August Alsina.’ It happened to turn in that direction when the interviewer started asking questions about his personal life.

Things soon moved on to his love life and his relations with the Smith family, who had taken him in in a manner of speaking. This was when he dropped the bomb, although he quickly moved away from being labeled a homewrecker. This is where the “Will knew” line came in.

Didn’t Want To Talk About His Private Life

Alsina tried to keep his personal life out of the interview despite his revelation making the headlines worldwide. But that proved easier said than done with journalists are hounding you. He asked why the public should know anything about his personal life.

The truth is that his celebrity status makes him a household name and changes his right to privacy. Sure, he still has rights, but if a journalist asks him a question or a photographer snaps his picture in public, there is very little he can do about it. It’s better to go with the flow, right.

But The Truth Eventually Came Out

The truth is that Alsina had been keeping things between him and Jada under wraps. And this is all because of the respect he has for them. But as his career started taking off and more and more people started noticing him, they also started seeing him around Jada a lot.

It was becoming a difficult situation to deny, so he did the only thing he could, and that was to reveal his secret. He may have been hoping that it wouldn’t get far or that people wouldn’t notice, but they did, and all hell broke loose.

An Unbreakable Bond

Will and Jada have one of the most solid unions in Hollywood. They met when Jada went to audition for the role of Will’s character’s girlfriend in “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Even though she didn’t get the part, she grabbed Smith’s attention. They started dating and were soon married.

They quickly became one of America's most popular and talked-about couples. They were used as an example of how a successful marriage can be. Their marriage looked indestructible from the outside. But it appeared to be nothing but that. They were having issues around when August Alsina said his intimate relations started with Jada.

Jada Having Issues

Jada was also going through her crisis on a personal and a parental front. She was dealing with the fact that her son, Jaden, wanted to emancipate himself and move into his place. She spoke about this on her show, “Red Table Talk,” when she had her children on the show.

She was going through a lot and wasn’t afraid to show it. But what was happening in public wasn’t the same thing happening behind the scenes, where she may have been finding validation in another way, perhaps even with another man.

Being a Parent is a Difficult Business

Described as one of the lowest points in her life, this was also one of the incidents that may have triggered Jada’s emotional breakdown. In a nutshell, Jaden wanted to leave home and start his own life. He wasn’t of age yet, so part of his experiment was that he had to emancipate, i.e., become an independent person before he was of age.

He had the money to do it and could take care of himself, but any mother would still be worried about her baby leaving home, even if he was of age. This was pretty stressful, and that’s why it is also seen as one of the reasons she needed some time away from her marriage to search for her soul.

But She Let It Go

The key issue here was that Jaden had been in the spotlight since the age of four. This was when he starred opposite his father in the film "The Pursuit of Happyness." He was soon starring in the "Karate Kid" reboot and another film opposite his father called "After Earth."

His star was on the rise. But to want to move out of his parent's house was a bit heavy for his age. This is something Jada understood and was hoping he would too. Perhaps she felt that she had failed as a mother and needed to re-evaluate her role in Jaden’s life.

Their Own Rules

The Smith family is renowned for uniquely doing things. They don't discipline their children, for example, allowing them to have control of their own lives instead and make decisions as long as they can explain why they did it. But they also allegedly have their own set of unique rules for their marriage.

There is one where they could ask one another if they could sleep with another person. But this could only happen if the other spouse approves of it. There was never any evidence that this rule was ever enforced, although Alsina was intimating that it had been.

They Were Separated

They were indeed having issues, and the couple felt they had to separate to solve them. They remained married, but they were allowed to pursue life without fear or responsibility for the other. This, they were hoping, would bring them closer together and help them rekindle their love for one another.

Will and Jada said they had to break up within their marriage and find each other again to make things work. It was a tough decision that needed an adjustment period, but it had to be done. How far they were willing to take their freedom remains to be seen.

The Change Of Heart

There was love between them, but something else was amiss. Perhaps they were working too much, spending too little time together? Around 2015, Jada and Alsina met at one of Jaden and Willow’s concerts. This was during the time that Will was working on films like "Focus," "Concussion," and "Suicide Squad."

This time apart, alongside Jada’s need to heal Alsina, who she discovered was suffering from a pain killer addiction, affected their marriage. The Smiths decided that they needed to do something to bring back their spark. This something was them taking a break from one another as husband and wife.

Their Rules Are Not Normal

Already renowned for doing things on their terms, coming up with a solution to their marital issues shouldn’t surprise anyone. According to Familyeducation.com, trial separation can help couples experience what it would be like to be single again, but without the legal baggage of actual divorce.

It also allows each individual to work on any personal issues that may be affecting their conduct in the marriage. It avoids costly and strenuous divorce proceedings, which may not be the answer. So maybe the Smith strategy wasn’t new, but they wanted to try to work things out.

You Can’t Break Love

Although this could also spell the end of a marriage and has for countless others, it didn't do anything to damage the love and respect that Will and Jada had for one another. This ensured that they wouldn't simply file for divorce, as is the case with so many other celebrity relationships.

They weren’t prepared to give up on over two decades of marriage. Instead, they put their marriage on hiatus while working through their issues in the process. Of course, this doesn’t mean they didn’t pursue other relationships as part of their therapy.

Being Unaware Of Turmoil

Will is one of the busiest actors in the industry and doesn’t spend a lot of time at home. This fleeting has been the cause of many of the issues in the family. Will has even acknowledged this himself. He did just that on an episode of "Round Table Talk."

He acknowledged that he was oblivious to his family’s suffering and unhappiness because he was so caught up in his own life and ambitions for them. However, this came to a halt after his daughter Willow shaved her head. This changed his perspective and made him take more notice of his nearest and dearest.

The Rumor Mill had Its Stories

Even though everyone knew how they operated, they still didn’t know much about what was going on in the family's business. This led to speculation, which led to rumors being spread about the true nature of Will and Jada’s relationship.

One of these rumors was that the couple had an open relationship. This most likely stems from the fact that Will has previously noted that they have an open-door policy about their marriage. They always kept one another in the loop about anyone they were into or feelings of straying.

One Thing Led To Another

Of course, rumors grow wings the more and more they’re left to fester, and that’s what happened when Will was linked to actress Margot Robbie. They had made quite the impression as co-stars in the film "Suicide Squad." This chemistry is showcased again in another movie titled "Focus."

But when this rumor came to the fore, it wasn’t Will who shot it down; it was Jada. She made it clear that she and Will have never dealt with infidelity, although she did have other forms of betrayal that have deeply hurt her. This just became a new angle for the tabloids to explore.

Killing It Where It Stands

But before they could even latch onto that angle, Jada went onto social media and killed the rumor. She stated that there was no way she and Will would be in an open relationship. She also reiterated that they trusted one another and were secure in their relationship, even saying that they had grown.

But rumor mills are what they are, and celebrities will always be linked to others to sell papers and get clicks. Hell, at one point, Jada was linked to Marc Anthony after he and Jennifer Lopez had split.

Making Waves On The Net

The story nearly broke the internet when it came out. The Smiths' publicists were on high alert as the media flocked in looking for answers. Of course, they denied it, with Will and Jada's people pleading that no such thing had happened. Then Alsina came weighing in with his own story.

His was, however, one of covering his bases, telling the press and people that he in no way meant for his story to cause harm. He just wanted to out it so that he could save his career, which was suffering because of the rumor floating around in the industry.

And Then It All Came Together

Eventually, everything came together, and the entire story was revealed. Jada met Alsina at the concert and discovered that he had issues with a pain drug called Percocet. So she undertook to help him overcome his addiction issues. But at the same time, Jada and Will were going through their separation.

August was even introduced to the family, with Will, Jaden, and Willow well aware of Jada’s connection with Alsina. She called it a friendship initially but acknowledged that it eventually had become something completely different. She called it an entanglement.

What Is An Entanglement?

In the dictionary, an entanglement is described as something that is "a complicated or compromising relationship or situation." But in 2020, the term became synonymous with Jada Pinkett Smith and her fling with singer August Alsina. The term went on to trend for days after Jada used it as a description.

It gets even more poetic because Alsina and rapper Rick Ross made a song called "Entanglements" after Jada had used the term. It was probably just that since Jada started gravitating towards Will, and their relationship came apart and eventually ended.

Alsina Off The Hook

Jada not only admitted that she and Alsina had been in a relationship but also said that it was a time when she and Will were not together. This let Alsina off the hook in a big way. That's because, to many, he had been seen as a homewrecker, and this was impacting his career.

Now that the world knew that Will and Jada were separated at the time, it made him not a homewrecker but a necessary tool in Jada finding her way back to Will. He also managed to kick his Percocet addiction.

Better Together

Will and Jada have since been working on their marriage and appear to be going stronger than ever. They have managed to find happiness within themselves and have, in turn, become closer as a couple. For this, they can partially thank August Alsina, their choice to separate, and their undying love for one another.

Of course, it could be the newfound vigorous love that caused him to slap Chris Rock at the Oscars. Or it could have just been one elaborate ploy, although why and why pretend for such a long time remain the pertinent questions. Either way, they had other problems that they could deal with together.

Airing Their Dirty Laundry

While most people wouldn't air their dirty laundry for everyone to see, Jada has never been afraid to show the world the seedy underbelly of her life. She has been doing this particular thing with her show “Red Table Talk.” While the show has been wildly successful, it has also pushed the boundaries of content creation.

It has also served as a sort of therapy session, allowing her to put her life out there for scrutiny but knowing that she will get closure every time she does it. The show was beneficial with Alsina and Jaden’s request to leave home; both were discussed on the show.

Always Backing His Family Up

While this family has had its ups and downs, one thing they have always done well together was back one another up. They are a tight unit, which is evident when you see them come together when the chips are down. This was evident after the slapping incident between Will and Chris Rock.

After the slap, Jaden and Willow quickly got to social media to have their say, backing up their father while also taking a neutral standpoint on violence. Willow was particularly vocal, saying on Instagram that everyone was going through something and that people should be kind to one another.

Being Liberal Parents

It’s worth noting that while they didn’t have any punishments in place for their kids, they did have an accountability clause, although it was easy to follow. The kids had to honestly speak to them about anything they felt they wanted to address.

This counted for when it was something candid or something they had done wrong, as Will had spoken on the Jimmy Fallon show. Jaden was on the show with him, and it was on it that he claimed that, despite being emancipated, he still sticks around his parents’ house because everything is free there.

What It’s All About In The End

Over the years, people will remember the Smith family as much for their hit songs and blockbuster films as they will for their controversies and willingness to push boundaries. But they will also be remembered as a tight-knit family who always found their way back to one another no matter what decisions they made.

But it is also worth noting that they live by their own rules. They also make plans for how they are going to solve problems, and maybe in the future, their methods will be mentioned when psychologists and marriage experts try to explain how humans can be happily married.