Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith weren't even a couple when he slapped Chris Rock

Jada Pinkett-Smith has revealed that she and husband Will Smith weren't even a couple when he stepped onto the stage and assaulted Chris Rock at the Oscars.

During the last Academy Awards ceremony, Rock alluded to Pinkett-Smith's bald head with a joke about her starring in the next G.I. Jane movie. Smith didn't take kindly to the joke and walked up to Rock and slapped him across the face before sending further threats after he sat back down, while it was subsequently revealed that his wife was suffering from alopecia.

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After the attack, Smith said, "keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth".

But, though the wife part was correct, they apparently weren't together romantically and have actually been separated for seven years.

" still trying to figure out between the two of us how to be in partnership and how do we present that to people? We hadn't figured that out," she told NBC News.

"Why it fractured? That's a lot of things. I think by the time we got to 2016, we were too exhausted with trying. I think we were both stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be."

Pinkett added: "I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce. We will work through whatever and I just haven't been able to break that promise."

The Matrix Reloaded star revealed that she initially believed the altercation between her husband and Rock had been a pre-planned segment for the show.

"I thought, 'this is a skit'," she said.

"I was like, 'there's no way that Will hit him'. It wasn't until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realised it wasn't a skit."

Later that evening, Smith won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in King Richard. But, he subsequently received a 10-year ceremony ban for his actions.