Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed she and husband Will Smith had been separated for six years when he slapped Chris Rock in an infamous Oscars incident.

Pinkett Smith said she thought “this is a skit”, when Smith stormed the stage and slapped Rock during the 2022 Oscars ceremony.

In interviews ahead of a prime-time sit-down with US network NBC, the actress also revealed she and Smith had been separated since 2016.

Smith, who was nominated for the best actor prize and went on to win, took the stage and slapped the comedian, who was hosting the ceremony, after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s hair-loss.

Pinkett Smith, who was seated next to Smith in the front row, told People magazine: “I thought, ‘This is a skit’.

“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.”

She said the first words she spoke to Smith once they were alone after the show were “Are you OK?”.

The couple’s marriage has long been the subject of much speculation and the actress told the magazine: “We’re still figuring it out.”

Pinkett Smith said they had been separated for six years before the Oscars in 2022.

“We’ve been doing some really heavy-duty work together,” she said.

“We just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us.”

Pinkett Smith has previously denied the couple have an open relationship. Speculation about the state of her marriage to Smith reached fever pitch in 2020, when she revealed she had had an “entanglement” with singer August Alsina.

Pinkett Smith also addressed her mental health struggles, saying: “When I turned 40, I was in so much pain. I couldn’t figure a way out besides death. So I made a plan.”

She added: “While I was really living the dream, I hit a huge wall – a massive amount of depression.

“I think that I looked at having outside sources to supplement for the voids that I was feeling inside.”

She said the “voices” were incoming. “‘Just kill yourself. You’re not worth anything, you ain’t s–t.

“I started looking for places, cliffs where I could have an accident, because I didn’t want my kids to think that their mother had committed suicide.”

She said she found relief in the form of ayahuasca ceremonies, where a leader supplies a plant-based psychedelic drug, usually brewed into a tea to drink, and guides the subject through hallucinations.

“Ayahuasca helped me, it gave me a new intimate relationship with myself that I had never had before,” she said, adding that the first time she took the drug, “the suicidal thoughts completely went away”.