Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith: Fresh divorce rumours after Magic Mike star shutdown past claims

They are one of the biggest success stories to come out of Tinseltown but even Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith fall victim to the odd rumour.

Days after the Magic Mike XXL revealed her marriage is stronger that ever, Radar Online has published an article claiming the Hollywood power couple are secretly in the process of ending their marriage after almost two decades.

"For Will and Jada, holding it together these past few years has been tough because their marriage has been on life support for a long time," a source is said to have told the publication. "They're exhausted from trying to maintain the façade of a happy union."

The story adds the couple who are parents to Jaden, 17, and Willow, 14, are trying to divide their combined $240m (£154m) fortune and are helping their children come to terms with the change.

IBTimes UK has contacted a representative for the Smiths and is awaiting comment.

The allegations come just weeks after the Magic Mike XXL actress discussed a long-standing rumour that they allowed each other to sleep with other people. The mother-of-two shutdown the open marriage allegations that have dogged their relationship for several years in a candid sitdown with radio personality Howard Stern on his serial broadcast, calling her partner "a man of great integrity".

"Just because your man is attracted to another woman doesn't mean he doesn't love you. It doesn't mean he's going to act on it. You've got to trust who you're with," she told the radio shock jock. "And at the end of the day, I'm not here to be anybody's watcher. I'm not his watcher. He's a grown man."

The 43-year-old star also used her photo shoot with American Way, the magazine for American Airlines, to further brush off rumours that they were heading for a divorce. She said: "Marriages go through shifts and relationships go through shifts because in life things shift. So people are automatically like, 'What's going on? They must be getting a divorce.' Well, no. But when people feel those shifts and there's a mystery, they have to fill it with something."