I don’t know about you, but I sure would like to know less about the sex life of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.
As a sex writer, I realize it’s not really on brand for me to shame or otherwise discourage anyone from talking about sex openly, but I hope I’ll be forgiven for pointing out that Will and Jada are, for lack of a better word, a lot.
Not unlike the very public and often bizarre romance between Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly, Will and Jada’s sex life has been all but inescapable recently, repeatedly popping up in headlines and social media feeds in what comes across as a heavily calculated PR move. Last year, there was the extramarital “entanglement” heard round the internet; last month, Will Smith told GQ about his fantasy harem and the couple’s transition to non-monogamy; and earlier this week, Jada opened up to Goop guru Gwyneth Paltrow about the challenges of maintaining a healthy sex life in marriage — before swiftly recanting.
Shortly after Jada’s candid comments suggesting “it’s hard” to maintain a sex life with your husband of 20-some-odd years sparked the predictable headlines that any of the couple’s frequent comments about their relationship typically spark, the star took to Twitter to insist she and Will have actually “NEVER had an issue in the bedroom.”
First of all, this seems pretty blatantly untrue. While Jada did not specify exactly what kind of sex “issues” she and her husband have definitely never experienced, it seems unlikely that you can have sex with someone for more than two decades and “NEVER” encounter any kind of problem, which seemed to be what Jada was initially conveying during her original chat with Paltrow on Red Table Talk. Why she later felt the need to recant after saying nothing more shocking than “sometimes sex is hard” is beyond me.
Moreover, this is a prime example of the bait and switch the Smiths often seem to be pulling: openly sharing details about their sex life — and sometimes even devoting entire episodes of Jada’s own talk show to it — then acting offended when the media takes the bait. Fortunately, a brief Twitter survey would suggest I’m not the only one who is very much over it.
Essentially, they remind me of the first high school couple in your class to start having sex: desperate to make sure everyone knows about it, but also performatively precious about maintaining their “privacy.” We get it, Will and Jada, you fuck, but you only do it in the most progressive, open-minded way and definitely never have any “issues.” It’s all very enlightening.
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