Actor Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, have had to stop the charity they founded. The amount of donations to the fund dropped by 83% after Will Smith slapped a colleague.
The charity founded by actor Will Smith and his wife raised $1.8 million in 2020 and $2.1 million in 2021. But in 2022, the fund only received $365,000 in donations. It can be seen that the influence of the charity founded by Will Smith and his wife has encountered a big problem in attracting donors.
The Smiths eventually decided to shut down the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation. According to many US news outlets, donors were affected by the shock caused by Will Smith, after he stepped on stage and slapped his colleague – comedian Chris Rock – at the Oscars in early 2022.
According to Variety , the Smiths’ fundraising efforts have been in serious trouble, with donations plummeting, following the Hollywood-shattering slap. The Smiths have so far refused to respond to media inquiries about the charity’s closure.
The Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation, a non-profit charity, was established in 1996. Donors often donate to the fund, including airlines and entertainment companies.
An undeniable part of these organizations’ donations is to demonstrate their responsibility to the community. Which fund they donate to says a lot about them. Therefore, the image of the head of the charity fund has a great impact on the donation decisions of the above organizations.
At the 2022 Oscars, when host Chris Rock made a joke about actress Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, actor Will Smith slapped him on live television. That slap will forever go down in… Oscar history as one of the most shocking and controversial moments.
Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars (Photo: Daily Mail).
The Smiths’ scandals don’t stop there. By the end of 2023, actress Jada Pinkett Smith said she and her husband, actor Will Smith, had been living apart for many years, just as rumors had been circulating in Hollywood for a long time.
Jada said that she and Will decided to live separately since 2016. Until now, the two continue to live separately. Because the separation has been going on for quite a while and the two have no intention of getting back together, Jada sometimes thinks about officially divorcing. However, after much consideration, Jada and Will are still… legally married.
In recent years, actress Jada Pinkett Smith and actor Will Smith have attended red carpet events together . They show their connection and comfort when together. The image of the two of them walking together intimately at events has dispelled rumors of separation and a “bad marriage” relationship.
Rumors of a somewhat “acted” marriage between Jada and Will have been circulating in Hollywood for years. Jada has finally decided to publicly share the true state of her relationship with her husband.
Explaining why the two have been actively collaborating with each other to appear in harmony with the media and the public, Jada once said: “We’re not ready to share publicly. Over the years, we’ve been trying to figure out how to work together properly. We’ve been thinking about how to express this relationship. We still have to continue thinking about this.”
Will and Jada have been married since 1997 and have two children together, son Jaden (26 years old) and daughter Willow (23 years old).
Jada shared more about why she and her husband have not divorced even though they have been separated for a long time: “We have really tried to do many things together. We still love each other and are still looking for a common future. I promised that separation would never be a reason to definitely… divorce. We are still trying to overcome all problems. I cannot break my promise yet.”
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Jada Pinkett Smith talks about her marital status with actor Will Smith (Video: Daily Mail).
In fact, neither Will Smith nor Jada Pinkett Smith have ever spoken out about the problems they have encountered in their marriage. Even when Jada’s affair with singer August Alsina was exposed in 2020, they did not talk specifically about the problems they encountered.
The actress only said “a lot of things happened”. “By the time we decided to separate in 2016, we were exhausted from the effort. We were both probably stuck in our idealized visions of each other,” Jada once confided.
American actor Will Smith (Photo: Daily Mail).
American actor Will Smith (born 1968) has received many prestigious awards in his acting career, including an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard (2021). Films starring Will Smith have grossed $9.3 billion at the global box office. This figure has helped Smith become one of the most popular Hollywood actors in the world.
Smith began his acting career with a role in the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1996).
Will Smith was once a rapper, he released 5 albums with DJ Jazzy Jeff, creating many favorite hits between 1984 and 1994. Smith released 4 solo albums, creating successful singles such as Gettin’ Jiggy wit It and Wild Wild West . Smith received 4 Grammy Awards during his career as a rapper.
Smith rose to fame as a film actor after appearing in the films Bad Boys (1995) and Men in Black (1997).
After appearing in the films Independence Day (1996) and Enemy of the State (1998), Will Smith received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for his roles in Ali (2001) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006).
Will Smith has also appeared in commercially successful films such as I, Robot (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Hitch (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Hancock (2008), Seven Pounds (2008), Suicide Squad (2016), Aladdin (2019), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Concussion (2015) and Emancipation (2022).
The biggest scandal of Smith’s career was when he slapped his colleague Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, because Rock made fun of Smith’s wife’s bald head. Smith’s violent actions were heavily criticized and were the focus of international media for a while.
Following the backlash, Smith resigned as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars. The Academy also banned him from attending events organized by the organization for 10 years.
American actress Jada Pinkett Smith (born 1971) has appeared in films such as Menace II Society (1993), The Nutty Professor (1996), Set It Off (1996), Scream 2 (1997), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Magic Mike XXL (2015), Bad Moms (2016), Girls Trip (2017), The Matrix Resurrections (2021).
Jada has also appeared in television series such as A Different World (1991), Hawthorne (2009–2011), and Gotham (2014–2017).