Inside Will Smith’s relationship history: How movie superstar married and dated a string of Hollywood leading ladies and was linked with many more before settling down with Jada in 1997
Hollywood titan Will Smith’s relationship with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith has been fraught, to say the least.
The ups and down of their 25-year marriage have always fascinated the public, and much has been revealed over the last few years, with news story after news story showing he world more about the complicated, and often difficult, partnership the pair are in than they may perhaps like.
Their relationship was at its most known last year, when Will Smith smacked comedian Chris Rock after he made a joke about Jada’s short hair at the 94th Academy Awards, coupled with the now infamous line: ‘Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth!’
Smith received much backlash for the slap, and Jada admitted that she was surprised to hear him call her his wife.
‘We haven’t called each other husband and wife in a long time,’ she told Hoda Kotb in an interview.
Will’s relationships have been dragged back into the limelight, after someone claiming to be his former assistant said that he caught Smith and his long-time friend and fellow Fresh Prince actor Duane Martin having sex in a dressing room.
Brother Bilaal, who describes himself as the actor’s ex-personal assistant, said in a now-viral interview: ‘I opened the door to Duane’s dressing room and that’s when I see Duane having anal sex with Will.
‘There was a couch and Will was bent over on the couch and Duane was standing up killing him, murdering him – it was murder in there.’
Will Smith has denied the rumours, claiming them to be ‘unequivocally false’, with a source claiming that the King Richard actor is considering taking legal action against Brother Bilaal.
MailOnline has pulled together all of Will Smith’s public relationships before his marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith.
Sandra Denton, late 1980s
Sandra Denton (pictured), also known as Pepa from 90s hip-hop duo Salt-N-Pepa, went out with Will Smith, though little is known about their relationship
In a bizarre twist, it was revealed that Will Smith and Sandra Denton, otherwise known for being Pepa in the hip-hop duo Salt-N-Pepa, went on a date in the late 1980s.
The revelation came on an episode of his Class of ’88 music podcast. Denton gave Will a questionable look after he reminded her that the pair went on a date.
He quickly said: ‘We’re allowed to talk about it! We’ve matured! We ain’t do nothin.’
Sheree Zampino, 1991 – 1995
Sheree Zampino (pictured) was Will Smith’s first wife. They had a child, Trey, together, who is now a DJ
Sheree Zampino was Will Smith’s first wife. The pair were together from 1991 to 1995, tying the knot in 1992 and having a son, Trey, together that same year.
The relationship was reportedly difficult, and they divorced in 1995. Will Smith once admitted that their divorce was one of his life’s most difficult moments.
Despite this, the pair remain close. In 2018, Will Smith called her ‘the best baby mama ever’ in an Instagram post celebrating her birthday.
The pair even posed with his Best Actor Oscar award after the 94th Academy Awards, in which he slapped comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
While Will’s career and fame shot up after they split. , Sheree didn’t quite follow the same trajectory. She appeared on all three seasons of VH1’s ‘Hollywood Exes’, a reality TV show that documented the lives of women who used to date famous people.
Her castmates include Nicole Murphy, Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife, and Andrea Kelly, R. Kelly’s ex-wife.
Garcelle Beauvais, early 1990s
Garcelle Beauvais (pictured) revealed she only found out she was the other woman when she called Will Smith at an awkward time
In 2020, Haitian-American actress Garcelle Beauvais revealed on an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hill that she and Smith had dated in the early 1990s.
The pair met on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She admitted in a 2022 interview that they weren’t in a ‘long-lasting relationship.’
‘I was an ingenue, he as single and a TV star so we went out a couple of times.’
She revealed that they were going out while he was married to Sheree, and said she only found out when she called him at an awkward time, while he was with Sheree and their son, Trey.
‘I remember one day calling him and he was in the car. And his son, with Sheree, [they] were in the back.
‘So you know, he picked up on the car or Bluetooth or whatever it was back in the day, or speakerphone — whatever it was — and he said, “Hey how are you doing?” And I said, “I’m great.”
‘And I heard this little voice in the background go, “Is that Miss Jada?”
‘And that’s when I was like, “Okay — I’m not the only one.” Exit stage left.
‘If a kid knows somebody then that person’s a little bit more important, right?!’
Tyra Banks, 1993 – 1994
Tyra Banks (pictured) admitted that despite seeing Will for a year, their relationship never ‘got serious’
Will Smith dated supermodel Tyra Banks between 1993 and 1994, after meeting when she auditioned for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, in what would be her first TV acting gig.
She managed to land the role, and played his ex-girlfriend Jackie from Philadelphia for eight episodes in season four.
While they dated for a year, reports claimed that nothing ever ‘got serious’ between them.
It is not currently known what their relationship was like, given that Smith was married to Sheree Zampino at the time.
Banks’ career flourished, having appeared on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, as well as editorials for Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar.
She was also a Victoria’s Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005.
Karine Steffans, 2004
It is not known how the relationship between Karrine Steffans (pictured) and Will Smith worked, given that he had long been married to Jada Pinkett Smith when they were seeing each other
Karrine Steffans reportedly dated Will Smith in 2004, while he was still with his then-wife Sheree Zampino.
An exact timeline of their relationship does not exist, and while there are no officials reports of the pair dating, she reportedly mentioned the relationship in her book ‘The Vixen Diaries’.
The now-45-year-old ran away from her home at the age of 16 and began working as an exotic dancer, following a long and troubled childhood in the US Virgin Islands and Florida.
Despite this, she became a New York Times bestselling author several times with her series of autobiographies.
It is not known how their relationship worked, given that Smith had long been married to Jada Pinkett Smith at this point.
Jada Pinkett Smith, 1995 – present
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith began dating shortly after she got divorced from her then-husband Sheree Fletcher in 1995, after meeting a year before on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith began dating shortly after she got divorced from her then-husband Sheree Fletcher in 1995, after meeting a year before on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Though Will was initially interested in her, he did not make a move, and instead dated Tyra Banks for a year.
The pair got married in 1997. while Jada was pregnant. She later admitted that she ‘didn’t really want to get married’ to Will Smith.
‘I was under so much pressure, being a young actress. I just didn’t know what to do,’ she said in 2022 in an episode of her Red Table talk show.
‘I was so upset that I had to have a wedding. I was so pissed I went crying down the freaking aisle. I cried the whole way down the aisle,’ she added.
Her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, admitted that wedding was ‘horrible.’
‘It was a mess. Jada was sick, she was very unpleasant … She didn’t cooperate with anything.’
But the same could not be said of Will, who said in on the same episode: ‘There wasn’t a day in my life that I wanted anything other than being married and having a family.
‘From literally 5 years old, I was picturing what my family would be.’
Their marriage was rocky from the get-go, and became even rockier in 2013 when she made the world believe the pair were in an open relationship, after she told an interviewer: ‘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.’
She later clarified the comments, and said in a social media post: ‘Open marriage? The statement I made in regard to, “Will can do whatever he wants”, has illuminated the need to discuss the relationship between trust and love and how they co-exist.’
She revealed earlier this year that the pair of them had been separated since 2016, and were no longer living together, though were still married.
She told NBC News at the time that she had promised herself that she and Will would never get a divorce, and has tried her best not to break that promise.
But in 2020, it was revealed that she had an affair with 23-year-old rapper August Alsina, a friend of her son Jaden, when she was 44.
She initially denied the relationship, but later admitted that she had an ‘entanglement’ with him.
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