Stephen A. Smith Blames Jada Pinkett Smith for Will Smith Gay Sex Rumors

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has blamed Jada Pinkett Smith for the surfacing of claims that her husband Will Smith was once caught having sex with fellow actor Duane Martin—allegations the couple has denied.

During a recent appearance on the YouTube show Unwine With Tasha K, a man called Brother Bilaal, who is described as a former friend and assistant to Will Smith, claimed that years ago he walked in on the Men in Black star, 55, having sex with Martin, 58, in a dressing room on a movie set.

Following the debut of the trailer, a spokesperson for Will Smith told People of the claims: "This story is completely fabricated and the claim is unequivocally false."

Newsweek has contacted representatives of the Smiths and Martin via email for comment.

Pinkett Smith also spoke out against the claims in an interview with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, which was teased on Wednesday and is set to debut in full on Thursday morning.

Appearing on the show to promote her recently released memoir Worthy, the Girls Trip star told her interviewers, including Charlamagne tha God and DJ Envy: "Let me just say this. It's ridiculous, right? And it's nonsense."

The Red Table Talk host went on to describe Bilaal as "a person that tried a shakedown, a money shakedown that didn't work."

"We're gonna take legal action," she said. "Because it's one thing to have your opinion about somebody, versus just making up salacious, malicious stories. So, that's actionable. So we [gonna] roll with that."

While the Smiths have spoken out to deny the rumors, Martin—who first worked with Will Smith on his classic sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—has opted not to issue a statement. TMZ has reported that Martin, who was previously married to My Wife and Kids star Tisha Campbell, finds the claim too "ridiculous" to address.

Hours after the claims were made public, Stephen A. Smith said on his own YouTube show that while he doesn't believe the rumors to be true, he places the blame for the chatter squarely on Pinkett Smith's shoulders.

"It's all your fault, Jada!" Stephen A. Smith boomed into the camera. "You see what happens when you tell people [your] business? Because you see what happens is, is that me and everybody else in between can go out there and we can talk about a whole bunch of things. Why? Because you invited us to talk about it."

"Whether it's leaking out information about your sex life with your husband, whether it's selling a book and telling the world that y'all been separated for seven years," he added, in reference to Pinkett Smith's revelation while promoting Worthy that she and her husband had quietly separated seven years ago.

Referencing Will Smith slapping Chris Rock onstage at the 2022 Oscars after the comedian made a joke at his wife's expense, he went on: "Ladies and gentleman, let's be clear, as much as we lament and abhor what he did to Chris Rock, up until that point, did it get any cleaner than Will Smith? What did he do wrong? He always wanted to do the right things. He was always about doing the right things."

Running through a list of the Oscar-winning screen star's films that he enjoyed, including Hitch, Independence Day, Focus and the Bad Boys franchise, the TV personality said: "Will Smith is a movie star, class personified, didn't do anything to impune his reputation at all."

"The dude is outstanding, he's conscientious, heart's in the right place, but we got to talk about subjects like this because it's trending all over the place. Why? Because people have the license to talk about him, that's why," he continued. "Now there's a level of validity in people's mind that gets attached to anything that involves him because his wife gave the opening."

"When you have people in your life who will spread your business, who will violate the sanctity of your trust, and your private space, they only get one shot," he added. "If Will Smith made any mistakes, [it] ain't about him and Duane Martin, ain't about him or anything else. Yes, Chris Rock was definitely an egregious mistake, no doubt about that. But everything emanates from him with Jada."

In concluding the almost 11-minute video, Stephen A. Smith, who has been critical of Pinkett Smith in the past, said that "the only reason I even broached the subject because I want it to be a lesson to the public out there. Be quiet. Follow Duane Martin's lead. Shut up, don't dignify it with a response.

"Will Smith, you want to go sue, go sue. But you know what you need to do? You need to find a way to make sure your wife ain't talking about your private business. Because if she learns to keep quiet about y'all, chances are the public will follow, and they won't be talking about y'all either. Just a thought."

During her appearance on The Breakfast Club, Pinkett Smith said that Bilaal felt that he wasn't appropriately compensated after working with her husband on a book.

"It's based around this person's idea that they, in some way, were doing business around Will's book, and that they spent money, or what have you, and that they needed to be compensated. So he already tried to do this money shakedown," she said. "Will was willing to give him a certain amount, and he didn't take it. So, this whole situation is based on that."

In the summer of 2020, singer August Alsina, 31, revealed that he'd had an affair with Pinkett Smith—which the married couple confirmed when they appeared together on her show, Red Table Talk, days later.

Pinkett Smith would famously refer to her relationship with Alsina as an "entanglement" that occurred during a break in her marriage with Smith.

Addressing the public perception that he was a long-suffering husband who had been cheated on, Will Smith told GQ in 2021 that while his relationship with Pinkett Smith was initially monogamous, they eventually opened their relationship upon realizing they were "both miserable and clearly something had to change" following an argument on Pinkett Smith's 40th birthday.