Jada Pinkett turns 48, recalls journey with husband Will Smith

As soon as American actor Jada Pinkett Smith ringed in her 48th birthday today, she took a trip down memory lane and recalled her relationship with husband Will Smith.

"The journey between Will and me... we have come to such a beautiful place," Pinkett Smith told PEOPLE in June. "I feel like we have a stronger bond than we even had in the beginning."

Jada and her 50-year-old actor husband have come a long way from the near breaking point she experienced years back. The long-time couple started dating in 1995 later tying the knot in 1997.

"It just felt like a loss," she said. "There was too much concentration on what was happening externally, and the family unit itself wasn't getting the attention and care that I felt we needed."

Jada said that juggling her family's four careers (they're parents to kids Willow, 18, and Jaden, 21) was a lot draining and she felt suffocated by the conventional marriage standards duo were living by.

"Will's like, 'We just came from Oslo, going to the [2009] Nobel Peace Prize ceremony [for Barack Obama] as a family, you've got a big house with a lake- isn't this amazing?!' And I'm like, 'No,'" Jada recalled.

"By the time my 40th [birthday] came, I was like, 'I can't do it anymore.' I was so depleted," she said.

Despite their struggles in life, Pinkett knew she and Smith had the tools and the love to get back to a healthy place.

"I am kind of a ride-or-die chick," she said. "I just knew with the kind of love that Will and I share -- which is beyond romantic love -- that we could transform our union and figure out how to re-create what we had.