Jada Pinkett Smith and husband Will Smith set the internet ablaze when they brought themselves to the Red Table to confirm she had a relationship with rapper August Alsina during the couple’s marriage.
The word “entanglement” went viral as Jada repeatedly used it to define what was going on between them, as Will pushed for her to be more specific. She confirmed it was a relationship, one that happened while she and Will were on a break and on the brink of divorce.
In a new interview with Vulture, Alsina reacted to the episode, admitting he’s only seen a few short clips on Instagram and not the full thing. That being said, he agreed with how Jada characterized what went down between them.
“I don’t know why that word is such an issue. I would agree,” he explained. “If you look up the definition of ‘entanglement,’ it is a complex and difficult relationship. It was exactly that. I think it’s just the language that probably stuck out to people. But I definitely have to agree with it being an entanglement. It definitely was something complicated, a complicated dynamic.”
Alsina was the one who first made the relationship public by speaking about it with Angela Yee on The Breakfast Club. When his claims made headlines, the Smiths decided to address them head-on.
He explained he spoke out in the first place because “a lot of chatter” about the situation was already out there and he was starting to get a reputation as “this problematic guy who was super reckless, like I’m pushing up on someone’s wife.”
“I didn’t really like that. I didn’t like the sound of that, especially when it wasn’t the truth,” he continued, saying that that perception also “started to f–k with my partnerships and business relationships and money.”
“I didn’t like how that started to tamper with my life and finances,” he added. “I felt it necessary to get it out off of my spirit and clear the air.”
Now that it’s all out there from all parties involved, Alsina said he doesn’t “have an issue with anybody.” He added, “I love everybody. I love all of them. They’ve been my family, and there’s a lot of history there.”
Echoing Jada’s comments on RTT, he said he didn’t have regrets about the relationship because of what he learned about himself through it.
“[It] helped me to operate and access my higher self,” he said. “I don’t regret it at all because I know that on this planet, there is not much harmony, and there is not much love, so when you’re actually given love, real love that you’ve never experienced, it is a gift.”
On the Facebook Watch show, Jada said she “was in a lot of pain” and “broken” at the time and “in the process of that relationship I definitely realized that you can’t find happiness outside of yourself.”
She also said she doesn’t look at their relationship as a transgression “at all,” as it taught her about her own emotional insecurity, “and I was really able to do some really deep healing.”
