Ana Navarro thinks Jada Pinkett Smith’s separation announcement is really about making money — not about speaking her truth.
“I think she’s having a relationship with her bank account,” Navarro, 51, said of Pinkett Smith, 52, on the Wednesday, October 11, episode of The View. “Because every time she needs to increase the ratings of the Red Table [Talk], every time she needs to sell books, she drops these bombshells.”
Navarro added: “I find it unseemly, and I will tell you this: Be careful of anybody who pretends to have a perfect marriage.”
The talk show cohost’s remarks come after Pinkett Smith revealed that she and husband Will Smith have actually been separated since 2016 while promoting her new book, Worthy.
“I made a promise that there will never be a reason to get a divorce. We will work through whatever. And I just haven’t been able to break that promise,” Pinkett Smith told Hoda Kotb in a Today show interview that aired on Wednesday, confessing, “We live separately.”
Navarro, meanwhile, asked her fellow View cohosts, “Why do I know so much about these people’s marriage? I kind of feel like I know more about their marriage than I know about my own damn marriage.”
Sunny Hostin disagreed with Navarro, revealing that she is “fascinated” by Pinkett Smith and Smith’s continual ups and downs. Hostin, 54, argued that the Girls Trip actress had every right to share the details of her relationship because it’s a memoir.
“When she writes in her memoir that they’ve been separated for all of that time, I think it’s a very brave thing to do, a very courageous thing to do,” Hostin said. “I think it has less to do with money. She has plenty of money.”
Smith, 55, and Pinkett Smith — who share Jaden, 25, and Willow, 22 — have weathered many storms in their marriage. (Smith also shares son Trey, 30, with ex-wife Sheree Zampino.)
In July 2020, Pinkett Smith made headlines after August Alsina claimed he’d been romantically involved with the actress. While she initially denied his claims, Pinkett Smith later confirmed that an “entanglement” happened between her and the musician, 31, while she and Smith were separated. Smith and his estranged wife claimed on the Red Table Talk in July 2020 that they had moved on from the scandal.
Two years later, the estranged couple was in the news again, this time for Smith’s actions at the 2022 Oscars. During the awards show, Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s bald head. (Pinkett Smith initially shaved her head because of her alopecia.)
Smith later issued an apology but was banned from all Oscars events for 10 years following his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Now, however, Pinkett Smith is claiming there might be a deeper reason Smith reacted so aggressively toward Rock, 58. She told People on Wednesday that Rock hit on her one summer when he heard rumors that she was getting divorced.
“He called me and basically he was like, ‘I’d love to take you out.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Well, aren’t you and Will getting a divorce?’ I was like, ‘No. Chris, those are just rumors,’” Pinkett Smith told the outlet. “He was appalled. And he profusely apologized and that was that.”
Despite their issues, Pinkett Smith revealed on the Today show that she was not “ready” to divorce Smith when they took time apart. “[We were] still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership, right, and in regards to how do we present that to people, you know?” she explained. “And we hadn’t figured that out.”
