Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper and actor Will Smith responded to his estranged wife’s memoir in an email to the New York Times. 

Will Smith's email

Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith

“When you’ve been with someone for more than half of your life,” his email said, “a sort of emotional blindness sets in, and you can all too easily lose your sensitivity to their hidden nuances and subtle beauties.” 

Smith also said his wife’s revelations “woke him up” to the realization that “she had lived a life more on the edge” and that “she is more resilient, clever and compassionate” than he’d assumed. 

Pinkett Smith is currently on a press tour for her memoir, Worthy. She had previously disclosed a few shocking tidbits, per Variety. 

One such tidbit was her thinking that the Oscar slap heard and seen across the world was a skit. Speaking to People, she said, “I thought, ‘This is a skit… There’s no way Will hit him [Rock].’”

Rock had joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, which was caused by alopecia. Rock had called her “G.I. Jane 2”, referencing the 1997 film which starred Demi Moore. 

In the movie, she shaved her head to try out for special operations training. This prompted Smith to charge up the stage and slap Rock. He was forced to resign from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and banned from attending its events for the next decade.

Pinkett Smith also told the magazine that she and Smith had been separated since 2016. When asked about the state of their marriage, she replied, “We’re still figuring it out.”