Jada Pinkett Smith Reveals She Once Dated Husband Will Smith’s BFF Alfonso Ribeiro

Before Jada Pinkett Smith married Will Smith nearly 21 years ago, she was actually interested in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air‘s co-star, Alfonso Ribeiro (AKA Carlton). Yes, seriously!

“I actually think I dated Alfonso,” the 47-year-old actress explained to her daughter, Willow Smith, 17, hubby Will, 50, and her mom, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, during a new episode of her Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk. “I think [we] went [on] one date together.”

Since Will and Jada are still friends with Alfonso, also 47, and his wife, Angela Unkrich, their joint date nights must be a little awkward since Jada and her husband’s BFF once dated. However, Will explained to Jada that there is no bad blood between him and Alfonso because they both respect each other’s marriages.

“He, like, took you on a motorcycle or something,” Will said about the actress’ one night out with Alfonso. Though the night seemed to end well for both of the actors, they decided that they were better off as friends. “My memory is: I dated a lot of people, but we went on one date,” Jada shared.

She later fell in love with Will after she auditioned to be on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. “I think I was 19 and they told me I was too short. But you were there,” she said about her husband. And Will knew that he was interested in getting to know Jada once he saw her act as Lena James in The Cosby Show spin-off, A Different World.

“When I saw you on Different World, it was that thing and I don’t know what it is, the bell rings,” he gushed. “And I knew that there was something in our energy that would be magic.” Will later separated from his first wife, Sheree Zampino, in 1995 and got married to Jada in 1997.

The pair has been happily married since and recently rang in Will’s 50th birthday together with the actor celebrating the milestone by bungee jumping over the Grand Canyon. How fun!