Why Jada Pinkett Smith Bought Her Own Engagement Ring After Will Smith Proposed: ‘I Took Control’

The actress and 'Red Table Talk' host opens up about about her marriage fears in her new memoir 'Worthy'

The day after Will Smith proposed to Jada Pinkett Smith in 1997, the actress went to Harry Winston and picked out her own ring, which she paid for herself.

"By buying my own ring, I took some measure of control and sent the message to myself: All right, get with the program,” she writes in her new memoir Worthy.

“I had to move quickly to make it all real and concrete for my psyche. The ring was a statement that said to my fear: Get used to this now,” she continues.

Her fear, explains the Red Table Talk host, had nothing to do with the man she would marry, but rather her “long-held belief that marriage wasn’t for me.”

Related: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's Relationship Timeline

When Will proposed, Jada had recently told the Men in Black star that she was pregnant (their son Jaden was born the next year).

And while she knew she always wanted to be a mother, “I’d been in the world enough to know how husbands and wives take each other for granted — far more than loving and appreciating each other. I did not want that. And I definitely wasn’t ready to make a lifelong commitment under a spiritual contract with God. This was a shoo-in to f–k up,” she writes.

But she slowly came to realize that having a child with Will bonded them for life already.

Though she admits to still being “scared as hell” after accepting Will’s proposal, she went out and bought the ring.

The two wed in an intimate ceremony on December 31, 1997 in Baltimore, Jada’s hometown where Will was also filming Enemy of the State at the time.

Ten years later, her husband upgraded Jada’s pear-shaped diamond set in a platinum band with a 10-carat sparkler he bought from jeweler Graff.

While promoting Worthy, Jada has revealed many details about her marriage, including the fact that she and Will don’t have a prenuptial agreement.

“I feel that was a very real moment for the two of us to look each other in the eyes, recognize that there would be tough times in this journey and to say to each other, 'No matter what, we’re going to figure it out, and that’s why we don’t need a prenup, because I’m making a promise that divorce won’t be necessary, that we will figure this out,’” she told Parade.

While the two are not divorcing, she told PEOPLE that she and Will are currently “still figuring out” their relationship. She also revealed on the Today show that she and Will have been separated since 2016.

“A lot has happened. The thing about relationships is that it's constantly moving. Relationships are, it's an organism. It's its own thing. It's constantly shifting and constantly moving,” she told PEOPLE.

Worthy is now available wherever books are sold.  

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