Jada Pinkett-Smith "never" wanted to get married.
Jada Pinkett-Smith
The 'Girls Trip' star felt pressured to tie the knot with her now-husband Will Smith early on in their relationship but admits she wasn't keen on the idea because she had "never seen a happy marriage".
She said: "I never wanted to get married. But my mother was like, 'You have to get married' - she's so old school - and Will wanted a family. So I said, 'All right, maybe it's something I should do.' ... I had never seen a happy marriage. I adored Will, I f***ing adored him, but I just didn't want to be married."
And the 47-year-old actress wouldn't describe Will as her husband and prefers to talk about her "life partnership".
She added to People magazine: "It's more of a life partnership ... I don't own him. He doesn't own me. He has to be his own person first, and vice versa ... Love is freedom."
Meanwhile, Jada previously admitted she and Will have a "stronger bond" now than they did at the start of their relationship.
She said: "It just felt like loss. There was too much concentration on what was happening externally, and the family unit itself wasn't getting the attention and care that I felt we needed.
"Will's like, 'We just came from Oslo, going to the [2009] Nobel Peace Prize ceremony [for Barack Obama] as a family, you've got a big house with a lake - isn't this amazing?!' And I'm like, 'No'. By the time my 40th [birthday] came, I was like, 'I can't do it anymore.' I was so depleted."
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