Jade Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow and her mother, Adrienne cover the latest issue of People Magazine. The story is “Our Family’s Untold Story,” which is kind of funny to me because their family’s story is all she’s been telling on her Red Table Talk. Jada’s marriage to Will Smith has been the speculation of gossip for a long time. Jada and Will’s marriage is as unconventional as their approach to parenting. What Jada shed light on in this article is where that unconventional approach came from and, according to Jada, it came from a deeply personal and dark place that had her considering harming herself.
Jada Pinkett Smith never doubted her love for Will Smith or their devotion to their kids, Jaden, 21, and Willow, 18. But over the course of their now 21-year marriage, she nearly reached a breaking point.
“It just felt like loss,” Jada tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story, in which she, daughter Willow and mom Adrienne, 65, the stars of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk, discuss their family’s unbreakable bond.
“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.”
Drained from juggling her family’s four careers and feeling suffocated by what she saw as unrealistic expectations of the conventional marriage paradigm, she hit a wall about 10 years in.
“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 recalls.
“By the time my 40th [birthday] came, I was like, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ I was so depleted.”
While Jada had thoughts of suicide, she recognized what she really needed to do was step back, reassess her whole life and put in some serious work.
“I had to really take time out for me and figure out what I wanted for myself,” she says. “I had to kind of put everyone aside and ask, ‘What would I do every day if it was just Jada?’ I literally had no idea.”
I do think Jada overshares but then I read things like this and relate to a lot of it, which leaves me grateful that she does. I mean, obviously I don’t relate to the “hanging out with the Obamas” parts, but definitely do relate to not finding fulfillment in external trappings. Even more than that, I understand the quandry: who would be if it was just me.
Jada said later that although things looked bleak, she knew she and Will had the tools to fix it. She said she knew their love would allow them to, “transform our union and figure out how to re-create what we had.” The hardest part, Jada said, was rebuilding herself but in the process of doing so, “the relationship got redefined.” So that’s how they got to where they are now, which Jada says is stronger than it was in the beginning. I know the rumors about them, but I also believe them when they speak of their bond. I don’t totally understand their marriage, but Jada sounds like she’s back to living in the light after some very dark times so more power to them.
Photo credit: People and WENN Photos
perhaps this is uncharitable, but lately it seems like her career has kind of stalled out and so all she does is talk about her and Will’s marriage. I guess she’s got the red table talk, but aside from the episode with Jordyn, has anybody watched it regularly?
It’s pretty popular it seems. And she still acts. She was in Girls Trip in 2017, a regular on Gotham, has a role in the threequal to Olympus Has Fallen. She’s getting consistent work. She is an oversharer, lol. Sometimes I just cringe and other times I’m like, hmm interesting. Truth be told the least interesting thing about her is her marriage.
She hasn’t been a regular on Gotham since the first season (2014), and hasn’t been on it as a guest since the third season. She was in Girls Trip, but that really just ended up being Tiffany Haddish’s vehicle and that’s still 2 years old.
I’m not saying she’s not working, but she’s not exactly working super frequently or with high profile roles. The only times she seems to get headlines these days are for oversharing about her marriage, and that one Red Table Talk with Jordyn.
Arizona, maybe that’s just how she wants her career to be? It’s really unfair to assume everyone wants to be super A-list successful and then judge them when they’re not super A-list successful.
Yeah, and I think it’s pretty amazing. I’ve gotten something significant from almost every episode I’ve watched, and I’m a pretty, judgy, jaded biatch, hahahaha. I also LOVE that she’s putting the emotional, internal worlds of THREE generations of women front and center. How many shows do you see that give that much space to women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s? She inspires me.
She bores me so much. She’s just like trump, memememememememe all the time. Not a word about the little kids in concentration camps. Jada is boring and her mother looks better than her.
I love that Jada overshares.
Personally I hope it will encourage more people share their story.
At least her overshares are about interesting, juicy stuff. I’ll take her over Dax and Kristin and their kids’ butt-worms any day!
Me too. I think she’s created an incredible platform for diverse and complex conversations.
I’m glad that she made it out of that darkness and her kids seem okay, successful even, but I wonder if they didn’t suffer long-term effects. Not judging her for putting herself first, but sometimes–as a parent–you can’t. Maybe the conversation should’ve been had with Will about balancing their lives (both of their lives) with the childrearing. It seems like he expected her to basically be a stay at home and he the primary breadwinner.
It seems like a “put your oxygen mask on first, then your child” kind of thing. Any long term effects would’ve been worse if she killed herself. Hopefully Will stepped up for Jada and the kids in a big way when all of that was going on.
I think it’s possibly more that his career really took off and he was an A-lister and a bona fide Movie Star for a period of time. I don’t think he expected her to be a SAHM, it’s just the way it worked out.
I’m glad that she’s sharing her truth.
But it seems like she’s been complaining about her marriage for years so I can’t help but wonder why they’re still together?
Whyis is she still talking??
I agree. she gets on my nerves. I use to like Will ever since he got with her not so much. I didnt even like her when she was on the Fresh Prince
Even though I can’t relate to the luxury lifestyle she has, I 100% understand coming to a place of, “this is it? This is what it’s all supposed to be about?” and having to reevaluate it all. Specifically regarding marriage, I have observed and lived myself this weird paradox: in the beginning my husband and I tried to model our marriage after the so-called ideals. Of course we failed miserably because those models didn’t work for us. After years and years, we finally came to a breaking point that would either mean the end of our marriage or a complete overhaul. The ways we had learned to relate and communicate were so bad that I finally got the courage to say, “I’m not doing this anymore. If you want to build something completely new, let’s do it. If you want it to stay like this, I’m out.” It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but it transformed our relationship. Marriage is hard, even with the right person, so total (but kind) honesty is essential. We danced around the truth for years trying to keep it together, when what we needed was to just share the truth, no matter how difficult, so we were both free to be ourselves. THEN we could love each other well. I *think* that’s what she’s kinda driving at… but then again, you never know what really goes on in any relationship. I appreciate her sharing even if she can be a little tiresome…
I just can’t with her. Part of me is glad she talks about marriage not always being a walk in the park… but at the same time, that’s pretty much the only things I hear about her.
That, and the fact that she and Will seemed like parents who REALLY were not nearly involved enough in their kids lives and allowed them to run around with the freedom of adults when they were SO young is really grating.
I find that she and Will are both trying to reallly realllyyy rebrand as the ‘we’re just like you’ kind of people. Will pushing into youtuber territory, and the constant “look we’re SO normal” schtick gets old when it’s coming from the same people who basically left their kids to raise themselves.
To me all of her supposed ‘oversharing’ always reads like a bunch of empty platitudes. Like, there is actually no substance to anything she says? I have read this several times now and I couldn’t tell you what exactly her problem was and what she and Will did specifically to change it.
That’s not oversharing at all. What she is doing is float vague sentences that seem profound and are open enough so that everyone can sort of project their own issues onto them and relate.
Yes, I was going to say the same. What exactly is the untold story here? I’m ambivalent to Jada but this is exhausting already. What are you even saying?! This story is a big nothingburger.
Stories like this make me appreciative of her oversharing. I think it takes courage to self assess, live your truths & tell your story. Maybe it can give someone validation, the impetus to make positive change, seek help or feel less alone. Side note.. .finally watched Girls Trip and it is so freaking funny! Raunchy, great cast and made me snort wine up my nose a few times.
courage lol. it’s called ratings and money hungry.
Stop – talking – already. She seems really messed up.
I appreciate that she was clearly struggling and has worked hard to be in a better place, but I really don’t understand any of this and my uncharitable thought is “first world problems.” Maybe I am not self-enlightened enough, but I don’t just seem to have the time to decide how fulfilled I am and what my truth is and whether I am living it to its full potential. Glad she feels like she got her answers.
I’d be more appreciative of this openness if she didn’t overshare on everything all the time.
Willow is gorgeous! And Jada’s mom looks younger than her on that cover.