It's a joke. She never said these words. Older tweets showed that the same satirical quote had been shared in previous years without her name attached to it.
A viral quote with actor Jada Pinkett Smith's name attached reads, "Don't let your husband stop you from finding the love of your life." However, this was not a genuine quote from Pinkett Smith. The satirical quote was created as a joke around July 2020. At the time, she had revealed to her husband, actor Will Smith, and the world that she had been involved in a relationship with musician August Alsina during a period when the married couple was separated.
July 2020
The quote was shared on Facebook and Twitter as text and memes:
Pinkett Smith was also mocked in a popular YouTube video that showed her talking to Smith about her "entanglement" with Alsina:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOTe0_Z0vlc
The quote with Pinkett Smith's name said, "Don't let your husband stop you from finding the love of your life." Some readers might believe that it's obviously a joke. However, we noted that some Facebook users appeared to believe it genuinely came from her. Several posts showed angry face emoji reactions and comments from people who seemed to think it was something she really said.
After the Oscars
Nearly two years later, the joke quote received a wave of new shares after Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars:
While onstage at the 94th Academy Awards, Rock had made a bald joke about Pinkett Smith (who was diagnosed with alopecia in 2018). Smith then got out of his seat, walked up to Rock, and slapped him across the face. It led to a 10-year Oscars ban for the "King Richard" star, who won the award for best actor on the same night.
Smith later apologized to Rock:
Despite rumors, there's no record that Rock ever apologized to the Smiths for making the joke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjEoDypUD8
The Origins of the Quote
An older version of the supposed Jada quote was posted as a response to the following story about comic book legend Stan Lee. It said, "Stan Lee met his wife when she was married, two weeks later she got divorced and married Stan an hour after the divorce. They stayed married for 69 years."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this story about Stan and Joan Lee was true. In response, another Twitter user tweeted, "Moral of the story: Don’t let your husband stop you from finding the love [of] your life."
The oldest version of the quote that we could find was credited to Twitter user @EhisIlozobhie on April 30, 2018. It read, "Phrase of the day - 'Don’t let your husband stop you from finding the love of your life' @EhisIlozobhie."
In sum, Pinkett Smith never said, "Don’t let your husband stop you from finding the love of your life." It was simply a joke that came out of words originally tweeted by someone else without her name attached to the quote.