Jada Pinkett Smith Denies Open Marriage, Says She and Will 'Still Figuring Out' Relationship (Exclusive)

Jada Pinkett Smith's relationship to Will Smith is still a work in progress.

“We’re still figuring it out,” Jada tells PEOPLE of their 25-year marriage in this week's issue. “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. There's a lot that's transpired in the last two years, and so we've been doing some really heavy-duty work together.”

In 2016, Jada revealed on her Red Table Talk series that she’d had a relationship with R&B singer August Alsina, while separated from Will.

As the actress, 52, tells PEOPLE, neither she nor Will, 55, has ever had an affair — nor do they have an open relationship.

“We eliminated the chance of betrayal,” says Jada, whose new memoir Worthy is out Tuesday. “It's like, ‘Let's talk about it. Let's work through it together. Let's be in partnership. Let's not keep each other in the dark.' "

"I think where that got confusing is that as time went on, there were different stages in my marriage where Will and I decided we were not together," Jada continues. "We didn't tell the public, where I was actually thinking about divorcing, separating. There've been several of those where we've gone
and lived our separate lives. So I think within that is where people might've thought that, 'Oh, they must be having an open relationship.'"

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In an interview with Today on Wednesday, Jada revealed to Hoda Kotb that she and Will have been separated for seven years. Jada confirmed that it wasn't "a divorce on paper," as Kotb worded it, but "by the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying."

"I think we were both kind of just still stuck in our fantasy of what we thought the other person should be,” she told Kotb.

The Set It Off actress also said she "made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce," explaining, "We will work through ... whatever."

And as she tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, "What we do know is that in this lifetime, we're what we got."

"I'll never forget, I said it on Red Table Talk. People weren't really privy to what was happening in our relationship at the time, but I said, 'You might be on one side of this house with somebody and I might be on the other side of this house with somebody, but we going to be in this house together.' That's what we are going to do," Jada says. "And that's just what it is. It's like we just have this incredible bond with one another."

"And I tell him all the time. I say, 'If you think for one minute I'm going to give up the right to pull that plug ... when your tail is in that hospital and a hundred years old, I'm pulling that plug," she continues. "Nobody else is going to get there. I worked hard to be able to pull that plug. Pull it. That's my call."

"But we just got deep love for each other and we are going to figure out what that looks like for us. And that is the thing that's most important," Jada adds. "Trust me, that is not for the faint at heart. I'm going to tell you straight up, it is not for the faint at heart. But I do believe that is why Will and I are still today married."

For more from Jada Pinkett Smith, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.