Will Smith was so deeply into his character as Paul Poitier, in Six degrees of separation, that he couldn’t get away from it when his day of filming was over. As he explained in his autobiography, soberly titled Will, and which People got the right sheets, the star, so early in her career (the film was released in 1993), even happened to fall in love with her then co-star, Stockard Channing. The comedian, who married Sheree Zampino, his first wife, in 1992, struggled with strong and conflicting feelings.
“Sheree and I were in the first months of our marriage with a brand new baby and for her I can imagine that this experience was unsettling to say the least. She had married a certain Will Smith and was now living with a certain Paul Poitier. And to make matters worse, during the shooting, I fell in love with Stockard Channing… ”, he explains in his book.
Desperate
If he tried to get rid of these emotions, Will Smith had the greatest difficulty resuming a normal life. “After the film was shot, Sheree, Trey (her first son) and I returned to Los Angeles. Our marriage had a difficult start. I found myself desperately wanting to see and talk to Stockard, ”he adds.
The actor doesn’t go any further in his revelations about his (seemingly one-sided) feelings for Stockard Channing, but his chaotic start to his marriage has endured as he divorced his first wife two years after the release of Six degrees of separation, in 1995. And in 1997, Will Smith married Jada Pinkett, whom he is still married to today, although, as they both admitted, their relationship saw some waves. The two actors recently revealed that they see each other as “life partners” and that they have left “monogamy” behind.
