Nia Long spoke about her former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Will Smith's current relationship drama with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, after August Alsina revealed that he had been romantically involved with Jada a few years back. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight about her new film, Fatal Affair, Nia discussed how difficult it must be for the famous couple right now, given how the public reacted both before and after Jada confirmed her "entanglement" with August on Red Table Talk. During the episode, Jada and Will revealed that they had split up for a period of time, which is when Jada and August entered into a brief relationship.
"I feel bad for Will and Jada right now, because they’ve been extremely vulnerable with their personal story," Nia said. "And it takes a lot of courage to do that. And I wish that people would back off and leave them alone. I think the key to any relationship is [to] give your partner the room to be who he needs to be, who she needs to be, and if it means you’re taking a break to do that? Take the break!"
"I know I sometimes just leave the house and I don’t tell anyone where I’m going and I’m like, 'OK guys I’ll be back,'" she continued. "Because I’ve learned that if I don’t take care of myself first, nothing else in the house runs smoothly." She goes on to call her former Fresh Prince co-star "an icon in our community" before noting that, "when you have a show like Red Table Talk, you want to be what you are sharing with the world, and that’s gotta be a tremendous amount of pressure. We all have our ups and downs with love. Love is a complicated thing."