'Is that Miss Jada on the phone?': How Garcelle Beauvais realized it was time to leave Will Smith
Will Smith had a brief relationship with Garcelle Beauvais before marrying Jada Pinkett Smith in the 1990s. The Haitian-American actress reveals her short affair with the "Independence Day" star in her book, as well as why she abruptly ended things with him.
The actress admits in her new book 'Love Me As I Am' that she made an 'exit stage left' after understanding she's "not the only one." Will's eldest son Trey, whom he has with his ex-wife Sheree Zampino, mistook her for his current wife Jada, Beauvais recalled. "I remember one day calling Will, and he was in the car, and his son [and his ex-wife] Sheree were in the back," Beauvais wrote. "So you know, he picked up the car or Bluetooth or whatever it was back in the day, or speakerphone - what it was - and he said, 'Hey, how are you doing?' and I said, 'I'm great.' "
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"Is that Miss Jada on the phone?" Will's son had asked, according to Beauvais. The reality TV personality said that it was the turning moment. "And that's when I was like okay - I'm not the only one. Exit stage left," she wrote. Following his divorce from Zampino in 1995, Will Smith married Jada Pinkette in 1997. Jaden Smith and Willow Smith are the couple's two children.
Beauvais also discussed her relationship with Michael Jordan in the book. The 55-year-old said in an excerpt obtained by Us Weekly said that she regretted declining his invitation to travel to Hawaii with him. "I was impressed by how tall and handsome he was. He took me on a golf date after the shoot and showed me how to hold a club properly and swing," she said about the NBA legend.
"Like a naive little girl, I was 'clutching my pearls' and shocked by the idea of going to Hawaii with a man I had just met," Beauvais recounted how she turned down the former athlete. Looking back, she confessed, "I blew that one!"
The reality star was previously married to producer Daniel Saunders. However, their marriage ended in divorce. The couple has a son together --Oliver Saunders, born in 1991.
In 2001, Beauvais married Mike Nilon, a talent agent with Creative Artists Agency. They had twin sons -- Jax Joseph and Jaid Thomas Nilon -- born on October 18, 2007. The couple filed for a divorce in 2010.