When it comes to rumors about the marriage of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, it's the classic "are they or aren't they" that Pasadena divorce lawyers and Hollywood gossip hounds alike love to speculate about. One tabloid says the Tinsel Town power couple is over while friends of the Smith clan say the reports are bogus. Who's right? Who knows? Here's what we do know so far.
Tongues started to wag early Tuesday morning when In Touch Weekly reported Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are separating. Their reps remained tight-lipped. Things got even stranger when TMZ contacted Pinkett's rep about the story, who then replied, "What? In Touch said that? I know nothing about this... Lord. I'm going back to bed." Meanwhile, an insider close to the family told Us Weekly the story was "100 percent not true."
The Smiths have long been the subjects of Hollywood scrutiny. Jada herself addressed this kind of rumor back in 2009.
"I've heard all the things - their marriage is not real, he's gay, she's gay, they swing," she told Us Weekly. "But at the end of the day, people have to believe what they have to believe. I'll tell you what, it's too hard to be in a pretend marriage. Life's too short for that one."
Smith also addressed the topic of his marriage in an interview with Ellen Degeneres in 2008.
"What I found is divorce just can't be an option," he said. "It's really that simple. And I think that's the problem with L.A. - there are so many options. So a huge part of the success for [Jada] and I is that we just removed the other options."
Will and Jada, who met when Pinkett auditioned for "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," married on December 31st, 1997. They have two children together, child stars Jaden and Willow. Smith has a son, Trey, from his first marriage.