Jada Pinkett Smith has been so open on her Facebook talkshow, Red Table Talks, that I’m embarrassed on her behalf. Yesterday we covered her latest episode, about sex, in which she told shocking stories about sex toys and masturbation in front of her mom, her teenage daughter and her daughter’s best friend. Also yesterday, Jada posted a candid Instagram (which we didn’t cover) in which she admitted that she’s gone through depression and has considered suicide. She posted a message along with photos of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, writing that she’s done spiritual work and self growth over the years to recover. It was a heartfelt sentiment and she deserves credit for being so vulnerable and open. There was arguably an element of “I have the answers” to it.
Earlier this week Jada was on Megyn Kelly’s segment of Today, which is inexplicably still not canceled. Megyn must have an ironclad contract. (Plus we know what complete a-holes NBC executives are, given how they covered for Matt Lauer’s assaults for years.) Jada is promoting her Facebook series and has no films or TV shows coming out this year. Anyway here’s some of what she told Megyn and you can watch the video below. Megyn really kissed Jada’s ass and she was clearly loving it.
On why she’s so open on Red Table Talks
I think that at 47, I’ve come through so much. The one thing that I’ve realized in my life is that people who’ve had the courage to share their testimonies with me have been such powerful elixirs. We don’t talk enough about what’s going on within us. I wanted a place where we could feel safe to do that. I do that often within my own family, so I was like ‘let’s just share that.’On Willow calling fame “terrible” and admitting she used to cut herself
I was [shocked] but at that moment Willow was speaking from a place of power. As her mother I needed to meet her there instead of crumbling within my own insecurities. She had come through.On the work she’s done on herself after suicidal thoughts
I was just sharing on my Instagram the other day of those times I was in such deep despair that I also thought of taking my own life and how there’s not one answer. It’s like life is a journey to help us get to a place of healing. I wish somebody had told me that.On her grandmother teaching her about self pleasuring
She taught me *about* self pleasuring. There was no tutorial but she did explain to me the importance of it. She taught me about the birds and the bees. It was very different than what she taught my mother. [She taught] sex education in high school.On knowing when Jaden lost his virginity
I knew with Jaden for sure. The night. There’s just a certain swag. He was walking different. My little boy was gone.On raising her kids famous
It has its challenges. I think that we can never forget that at the end of the day we’re all human. Whatever your lifestyle may be, your nationality, your color, your gender. We all bleed the same color.Megyn pushed Jada on how the kids didn’t like fame
Jaden has come into himself a bit more in regards to it. Even Willow now hasn’t decided if this is something she wants to do as a career. Unfortunately she’s part of a family that is in the spotlight. She’s trying to figure out who she is and the life that she wants to have within that.
[From The Megyn Kelly show, video below]
Jada also talked about losing her identity and sense of self after becoming a mother and called that the “hardest she’s ever grieved.” She said that she “let a lot of that old Jada go that I didn’t have to.” As for her 20 year marriage to Will Smith, she said “Will and I have a very unique partnership. You can love someone and allow them to be exactly who they are.” She promised to have Will on RTT next.
Jada did gave good advice about depression and suicidal thoughts. Both things can be true – she can be a narcissist and she can be someone who’s had true difficulties she’s overcome. I’m glad that she clarified the advice her grandmother gave her at 9 about self pleasuring. Many people were concerned about that after reading the headlines.
It sounded like Jada is disappointed in Willow for not wanting a career in show business. Read her answer about Jaden “coming into himself” as if he’s more evolved than Willow. Plus Jada is putting Willow on RTT, that speaks volumes.
The press is embracing Jada’s Girls’ Trip co-star Tiffany Haddish, she just scored the cover of The Hollywood Reporter. Maybe that’s part of the reason we’re seeing so much of Jada lately. Tiffany is all about opening up, but it feels genuine when she does it.
Here’s the interview:
Willow is selling hoodies online now.
photos credit: Backgrid, Instagram and screenshots from Megyn Kelly show and Red Table Talks
I am not warming up to Jada as a lifestyle-parenting guru. Maybe some people are but I can’t get into it. I keep thinking “why is she still talking?”.
Because she has to sell her kids, like any good parent would. How else will they make a living? Get one of those… yobs?
@still_sarah: totally agree. Doesn’t she see that talking about her kids most intimate part of their lives while they are still young, disqualifies her as a “parenting guru”?
Fame has a lot of pressure attached to it. I feel she should understand why Willow doesn’t like it much.
“ Unfortunately she’s part of a family that is in the spotlight. She’s trying to figure out who she is and the life that she wants to have within that.”
Sigh….Willow could be on her way to any college in the world or two years in the Peace Corps or an around the world trip, all with zero debt, and you know what? People would soon let her be. “Within that?” So she can do what she likes as long as she appears on my Facebook show talking about her most private thoughts and moments because we are a FAMOUS family. We’re FAMOUS. Did I mention we are famous? There’s the narcissist.
Children of very very famous people have managed private and successful lives, it’s doable. But they have to disengage from the media. Sigh…poor kid.
Her daughter has said she has cut herself, yet she still has the nerve to put her in front of the camera. Jada is more concerned with being perceived as a “cool” mom than the well-being of her kids. As much as I can’t stand The Osborne’s they let the eldest daughter live her own life out of the spotlight even while they filmed their show. Jada needs to take note!
You are right on in seeing how she’s limiting Willow to being within the “famous family”, and how she could have been doing anything, like the other children of famous parents do.
Their family is only in the spotlight because they wanted it that way. They put their children into entertainment careers before they were old enough to understand the complexities of that, and even when one of them has expressed a dislike for it, she’s still pushed into it.
I hope someday Willow gets to make her own choices and follow her own passions.
So I thought the kids were just too sassy for their own good because of free range “parenting”
Now I understand that they’re just as horrified by their parents oversharing as I am, and now I feel sorry for them.
Yes, we know your sex life is so amazing that all the double bearding rumors are just bunk.
Me thinks the lady douth protest too much.
Keep talking though Jada! You’re “entertaining”.
Bless her heart!
Nice face fillers
I can’t stand anyone in this family except Will
I like Jada. I don’t think you can compare Tiffany to her , at all. Jada earned this space. Whatever Tiffany is looking to do, Jada did, been there, lived that, still surviving and thriving. Honestly,I i feel some type of way about this comparison. If anything, Tiffany is on the cover of that magazine because of people like Nia Long, Jada and Ms. Union. Having said that, i don’t watch the show. Just…no interest, at all. Perhaps I’ll watch the Will Smith one but I honestly have no interest in Jada and her kids. I do follow Wills YouTube channel and find a few interesting moments but then I’ve always loved and been interested in Will. Tell you who I’d watch if they did a life healing TV show: Whitney Houston (if she were alive, coz she had shade for days) and currently Angelina and her kids coz they seem fun and wild. I don’t feel like The Smith kids are entitled. They come across better behaved than most Hollywood kids. But I like Willow more. Strangely, Willow reminds me of Malia Obama. They just seem like poised young women who shy from the spotlight while Jaden to me seems to either feel the pressure to be as great as his dad (but not afraid to ride his coattails) or just doesn’t want to self discover (what his own talents might be). Either way, I’m glad they seem to be on the straight and narrow. I think with all that money and lifestyle, these kids could’ve ended up any kinda way but they seem chill.
Don’t know about her show or parenting advice just commenting on how lovely her skin is. That’s all.
Yeah, this family should be giving skin care advice, not sex parenting advice.
If Willow is still unsure about fame, then why are you putting her on your talk show where you’re discussing things like pleasuring your self? I get the “Unfortunately she’s part of a family that is in the spotlight.” part because even Willow decided to become a doctor, she still will have to deal with people who want to use her to get to her parents or be photographed if she goes to visit them and stuff like that.But otherwise, let her live her life. If she doesnt want to be in the spotlight then stop putting her there.
She always seems so upset when her mother speaks. Like jada is not speaking to her privately. If its said it’s done for rating and attention.
I’ve often felt willow doesn’t hate fame. She hates having her feelings and privacy exploited by her family.
Jada clearly doesn’t respect Wilow’s emotional boundaries or she wouldn’t keep oversharing in such a public manner. I think Jada is probably the classic narcissistic mother.
“Will and I have a very unique partnership. You can love someone and allow them to be exactly who they are.”
She should try applying that philosophy to her daughter who doesn’t want her private life to be a public spectacle
She needs to stop talking.
“We don’t talk enough about what’s going on within us” – honestly, that line is so tired by now. By all means, I agree people should feel free to open up about personal difficulties, but it’s become a strategy for celebs to stay relevant more than anything. I’m not sure how much help it’s going to be for depressed people to read about another filthy rich Hollywood celebrity who’s had some kind of mental struggle in her life.
Also, don’t pressure your kids into being ‘open’ on YOUR terms. Young people have a natural desire to keep some things private and secret. That’s not unhealthy, it’s a part of establishing a self with boundaries, so that when you share something, it’s a careful choice in the company of people who support you. It’s not something you do to help mommy sell her Facebook show and stay in the papers.
It’s interesting to compare how Jaden and Willow were pushed into the spotlight and show business from early age (and how their parents continue to use them to promote themselves and the Pinkett-Smith family brand) and the situation of their older brother from Will’s first marriage, who seems to be much more private and normal.
It’s annoying when celebrity parents make it seem like their children’s lack of “normalcy” and “raising your kids famous” is an inevitability. It isn’t. It was will and Jada’s decision to raise their kids that way. I can list numerous huge celebrities who kept their kids private and grounded.