We Reveal How 'Desperate' Will Smith's Hollywood Exile After Chris Rock Oscars Attack Has Cost him $1Billion — Plus the Tragic Reality of 'Marriage Arrangement' With Jada
Feb. 3 2025, Published 9:36 a.m. ET
Will Smith's Hollywood exile sparked by slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars has cost the superstar $1billion.
RadarOnline.com can also reveal Smith's marriage to wife Jada Pinkett Smith is over in all but name, as the pair cannot afford to divorce each other.
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star's career and marriage have been on a downward spiral ever since his attack on Rock, which shocked the world.
His big-budget slavery movie Emancipation, for which he was reportedly paid $35million, sunk without a trace.
Smith's split from wife Jada was played out in public, with the actress admitting to seeing another man.
On top of that, the fallout from the Oscars debacle meant he missed out on a billion-dollar deal, and the Smiths' production company Westbrook has been forced to lay off staff.
Smith, who won an Oscar for 2021 tennis biopic King Richard, is said to still be furious he copped so much flak for the attack on Rock, after the comic made a harmless joke about his wife's haircut.
He's currently in the midst of a comeback, which continued on Sunday night when he was invited to be a co-presenter at the high-profile Grammy music awards.
But an insider has revealed the reason Smith, 56, and Jada, 53, appear to still be together is because, financially, it wouldn’t make sense for them to divorce.
The source said: "They're still together on paper, but at this point the talk is that it’s more of a business arrangement than an emotional connection.
"The two companies they’re attached to serve as a vehicle for most of their money-making endeavours and it would most likely need to be split up or totally revamped if they were to put a formal end to the marriage.
"That is just not something that they have wanted to do.
"For logistical purposes it’s been more convenient for them to keep the status quo and do their own things in different places for the better part of five years."
Before the moment Smith's "nice guy" reputation was turned on its head in front of millions of people watching the Oscars on TV, his life appeared to be perfect.
There was talk of the Smiths selling their production company for a billion dollars.
Jada's Red Table Talk show was a hit on Facebook and they had remade Bel-Air as a new TV series follow-up to the Nineties sitcom favourite.
Their children, Jaden, 26, and Willow, 24, had both launched successful showbiz careers and Will had rightfully received critical acclaim for his performance in King Richard, where he played the father of tennis greats Serena and Venus Williams.
But once the world had seen the normally mild-mannered actor as Mr Angry, another reality was revealed.
Afterwards it came out Jada and Will had been living separate lives for six years.
The loving spouse act was, it turns out, a sham.
Jada said in 2023: "We hadn’t called each other husband and wife since 2016."
Her cutting comments deeply hurt Smith, fueling his desire to end the marriage officially, if he can find a way to not lose out too much financially.
A source added: "He knows he needs to be strategic as there’s $400million on the line. But he's hurt and angry. He wants to divorce and end the charade."