A Rumor Has Circulated for Years that Will Smith Died in a Car Crash, but He's Fine

Rumors have been swirling on the internet suggesting that Will Smith, the actor who dominated the box office for decades, had died. Following the rumors that he had died, many wanted to learn more about whether those rumors were true.

The rumors suggest not just that Will died, but that he was with his son Jaden in a car accident and both of them died. Here's what we know about whether there's any truth to that rumor.

No, Will Smith is alive and well. The news of his death and the death of his son would be a big deal, and it's unlikely that you would only hear about it from some random Facebook post.

In fact, as it turns out, the viral posts suggesting that Will and his son died are actually several years old, according to Politifact, and come originated with Facebook accounts that looked like they were associated with real outlets like CNN.

It seems, then, that this was the latest celebrity death hoax designed only to generate clicks and shares. The hoaxes link to articles with purported details about how the two of them died, as well as a photo of a torn-up car and the two of them together. Thankfully, though, all of this is designed only to make the story seem more real. No piece of the story is true.

Will Smith is far from the first celebrity to be a part of a death hoax of this kind. They pop up online all the time, and car crashes are often one of the ways that they can be spread because they are never expected. Many celebrities die from an illness or from old age, but if you say that they die in a car crash, it of course seems believable, because no one ever expects to die in a car accident.

Indeed, everyone from Kurt Russell to Jennifer Lopez to Drew Starkey has fallen prey to a similar death hoax, and these kinds of rumors can keep on recirculating for years even after they first hit the internet.

If you want to know whether a death rumor is true, you should make sure that the accounts and articles you're seeing about it are linked to verifiable sources of information. The account might look like CNN, but you should double check before you share the news yourself.

Now that both Twitter and Facebook are easing off of their fact-checking programs in favor of community notes, it might be easier than ever for this kind of misinformation to spread. That's why it's important for each person individually to check their information before they recirculate a rumor that might or might not be true. Will and Jaden Smith are both alive and well, despite what you may read in some corners of the internet.