Stockard Channing reacts to Will Smith's love admission

Stockard Channing has finally spoke up after Will Smith confessed his love for two years back in his book.

During an appearance on the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast, the 80-year-old star recalled that she shared immediate “chemistry” with Smith while filming Six Degrees of Separation in 1993.

Channing, who received the Oscars award nomination for her leading role as Ouisa Kittredge in the film said, “There was nothing that was between me and him. I felt very motherly towards him.”

She fondly talked about smith, “I liked him a lot. He was absolutely adorable. Just a sweetheart.”

The film Six Degrees of Separation was based on the true story of a con artist named David Hampton who used to fraud rich people. Smith played the role of con man Paul, while Channing and Donald Sutherland played the character Paul's targets.

Stockard further detailed how she met Smith, when he and the film director Fred Schepisi came to London to watch her perform and admitted, “We went out to dinner afterwards. And that was it. It was just natural and easygoing

The Man in Black actor admitted in his 2021 memoir that he fell in love with his costar during filming and yearned to see and speak to her.

At that time Will Smith was just 23 years old, married to Sheree Zampino and just welcomed their son Trey.

Smith wrote in his book, “Sheree and I were in the first few months of our marriage with a brand-new baby and for Sheree, I can imagine that this experience was unsettling to say the least.”

Smith continued, “She'd married a guy named Will Smith and now she was living with a guy named Paul Poitier”, he admitted, “And to make matters worse, during shooting I fell in love with Stockard Channing.”

Later, in the year in 1995, Smith and Zampino ended their marriage.