Let’s be real for a second. When the word entanglement dropped in 2020, the internet basically broke. You couldn’t scroll through Twitter or Instagram without seeing a meme of Will Smith looking teary-eyed at a red table. It was a cultural reset, but not the kind anyone actually asked for. Most people saw a messy celebrity affair. They saw a "homewrecker" and a betrayed husband. But if you actually look at the timeline, the story of Jada Pinkett Smith and August Alsina is way weirder and more complex than a simple tabloid headline.
It wasn't just a fling.
To understand what happened, you have to go back to 2015. That’s when Jada first met August through her son, Jaden. At the time, August was a young R&B star struggling with some heavy stuff—serious health issues and addiction. Jada, being Jada, stepped in to help. She’s always been that "healer" type, right? She wanted to pull him through a dark time. But while she was busy trying to fix August, her own world was quietly imploding.
The Secret Split Nobody Knew About
Here is the kicker that didn't come out until much later: by the time things got romantic between Jada Pinkett Smith and August Alsina, her marriage to Will was already effectively over.
In her 2023 memoir, Worthy, Jada dropped the absolute bombshell that she and Will had been living completely separate lives since 2016. They weren't just "having a rough patch." They were done. They just hadn't told the world yet because they weren't ready to face the public's "perfect couple" expectations.
Honestly, that changes the whole vibe of the "entanglement."
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When August sat down with Angela Yee in 2020 and claimed he had Will’s "blessing," the world gasped. People thought Will was some kind of cool, permissive husband in an open marriage. Jada later clarified on Red Table Talk that "permission" wasn't really the right word. Since they were separated, she didn't need permission. She was a grown woman doing her own thing while her marriage was in a state of "amicable" collapse.
What Really Happened at the Red Table?
That Red Table Talk episode is legendary for a reason. It was raw. It was uncomfortable. It felt like watching a private therapy session you weren't supposed to see.
Will forced the issue. He sat her down and made her say the word.
"An entanglement?" he asked, tilting his head. "A relationship," she finally admitted.
They were both laughing, which was the strangest part of the whole thing. It was like they had already processed the pain years ago and were now just performing the autopsy for the cameras. Jada explained that she was in a lot of pain and was "very broken." She was looking for happiness outside of herself, trying to feel good after a long time of feeling, well, not good.
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The Impact on August Alsina
We talk a lot about the Smiths, but August really went through it. In his interviews, he sounded genuinely devastated. He talked about how he "gave his full self" to that relationship for years. He said it "almost killed" him to walk away.
Think about that. You're a young guy in your 20s, falling for one of the most famous women in the world, and you're doing it in the shadow of a "life partnership" that is both over and not over at the same time. That’s a lot for anyone to carry. August eventually moved on, even appearing to come out in 2022 by introducing a boyfriend on VH1’s The Surreal Life, but the "entanglement" label still follows him everywhere.
Why This Story Still Matters in 2026
You might wonder why we’re still talking about this. It’s because the Jada Pinkett Smith and August Alsina saga changed how we look at celebrity "perfection."
It pulled back the curtain on the "Life Partnership" model the Smiths have been preaching. It showed that even the most powerful couples in Hollywood have messy, painful, and confusing periods. They aren't robots. They're people who make mistakes, get lonely, and find comfort in the "wrong" places when they’re hurting.
The Smiths are still together today, though they still live in separate houses. They call it a "Grown One" relationship. It’s not a traditional marriage, and they’ve made it clear they aren't ever getting a legal divorce. They’ve decided to "ride or die," even if the ride involves some serious detours.
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What You Can Learn From the Mess
If there's any takeaway from this whole "entanglement" era, it's these few things:
- Labels matter less than honesty. Jada tried to use a soft word like "entanglement," but the truth eventually demanded a harder word: "relationship."
- Healing shouldn't be a romantic project. Jada started out trying to "heal" August, which often leads to blurred boundaries. It's a classic trap.
- Public perception is a lie. While we were all envying the Smith marriage from 2016 to 2020, they were actually living in different zip codes.
- Forgiveness is a choice. Will and Jada chose to work through it publicly, which is a level of transparency most people couldn't handle.
The next time you hear someone joke about an entanglement, remember it wasn't just a meme. It was a story of two people trying to find their way back to themselves while a third person got caught in the crossfire. It was messy, it was human, and honestly, it was a lot more relatable than the "perfect" version of them we used to see on the red carpet.
If you're curious about how they've stayed "together" while living apart, the best place to start is Jada's book Worthy. She gets into the gritty details of her Baltimore upbringing and why she views marriage so differently than the rest of us. It’s a wild read that puts the whole August situation into a much larger, and much sadder, context.
Next Steps for You
- Watch the original Red Table Talk: If you haven't seen the "Entanglement" episode in full, go back and watch the body language. It tells a different story than the transcript.
- Read the memoirs: Compare Will’s book Will with Jada’s Worthy. They remember the same years very differently, which is a fascinating look at how two people experience the same relationship.
- Check out August Alsina’s music: Specifically the song "Entanglements" with Rick Ross. It’s his way of reclaiming the narrative after the world turned his life into a punchline.