Jada Pinkett Smith defends (reportedly) open marriage with Will Smith

After 18 years of marriage, it’s clear whatever Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are doing is working. Still, the question about just what are they doing persists. There have been rumors for years that the pair has an open marriage — to the extent they allow each other to sleep with others. Speaking to Howard Stern this week, Jada didn’t address those specific reports, but did make it clear their relationship is nontraditional in many ways.

“You’ve got to trust who you’re with. And at the end of the day, I’m not here to be anybody’s watcher. I’m not his watcher. He’s a grown man,” she said. “Here’s what I trust — I trust that the man that Will is, is the man of integrity. So, he’s got all the freedom in the world. As long as Will can look himself in the mirror and be okay, I’m good.”

Jada added she is fully aware that Will finds other women attractive.

“I’m just not that girl. It’s just not realistic. And just because your man is attracted to another woman, does not mean he doesn’t love you,” she said, explaining they talk about their crushes. “That’s not what it means. And it doesn’t mean he’s going to act on it. If your man can’t really see another woman’s beauty, how the hell is he going to see yours?”

The opinions Jada expressed aren’t entirely new: In a 2013 Facebook post, she criticized the focus on whether their marriage is “open” and added she prefers to go without labels:

Does love look like, feel like, and operate as enslavement? Do we believe that the more control we put on someone the safer we are? What of TRUST and LOVE? Should we be married to individuals who can not be responsible for themselves and their families within their freedom? Should we be in relationships with individuals who we can not entrust to their own values, integrity, and LOVE…for us???

Speaking to Howard this week, Jada said the style of her marriage may not work for everyone, but it does for them because she has a “gangster partner.”