On her Facebook Watch talk show, Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith opened up about some of the most personal aspects of her life. In particular, she bravely described a painful last memory she had of her late father.
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Jada Pinkett Smith
When talking about her father’s relapse, Pinkett Smith said the main issue she had with her father Robsol was his interest to build a relationship with her only when she became famous. The actor reflected on how her upbringing was impacted by her father’s struggle with drug addiction, which finally claimed his life in 2010.
Jada Pinkett Smith Opened up about Her Father, Robsol Pinkett Jr.
On one of her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk episodes, Caleeb Pinkett, the actress’s half-brother, joined her to talk about the brothers’ “shared source of pain“: their father, Robsol Pinkett Jr.
Jada Pinkett Smith bravely admitted throughout the conversation that the biggest challenge she encountered with him was his sudden desire in developing a connection with her once she became successful in Hollywood.
“The issue for me was when I got into the position I got in and then he wanted to have a relationship,” she said.
Jada Pinkett Smith
“That hurt me… So, when he died from that overdose, I got a call from Caleb, and the most difficult thing about him dying like that is that he and I had had a horrendous fight when I found out that he relapsed.”
Expounding on their fight, she added,
“I was like, ‘I don’t owe you nothing. You didn’t do s**t for me. You didn’t do s**t for Caleeb. I don’t owe you nothing.’ It was one of those.“
Pinkett Smith learned over the phone from her brother that their father died of an overdose, following a volatile argument she’d had with him. Pinkett Smith said it wasn’t until after her father’s death that she was able to find sympathy for him.
In his response to her comments during the disagreement, the Girls Trip actor added that her father had admitted to being an addict at that moment.
“I was furious. And he told me, ‘That’s what the disease is. This is who I am,'” she said. “And that was deep because he’s saying, ‘That’s who I am, but I am still who I am to you.’ He said, ‘I’m still your father.'”
The siblings discussed the past in an attempt to find forgiveness for the man who “hurt us the most.”
“I had the most startling realization that Rob’s life wasn’t about him being my father,” she said. “Rob’s life was about Rob being on his journey, and it just so happened along the way that he gave me life. … And in that moment I realized he was not born to be my dad. That wasn’t the only thing he was here to do. He’s a person first, with his own journey.”
Jada had a difficult relationship with Robsol (second from right)
She continued:
“That was my ‘aha’ moment of, like, utter forgiveness, to be able to see him as human being. That’s when I started, even in my own life, tearing down all these titles and labels. … For the last seven years I’ve been in search of emotional independence, where you don’t need people to be something for you. That has been the greatest gift in my journey.”
The siblings addressed having trouble forgiving a man who had a bad drug habit and had abandoned them when they were children in the whole episode.
Prantik Prabal Roy is a writer at Fandomwire. With an experience of over 4 years in content writing industry and a Master's degree in English literature, he continues to write about your favorite Hollywood celebs and keeps a close watch on their every move to provide intriguing perspectives for the readers. He likes reading, watching movies and traveling. When not working, you will find him obsessing over Leonardo DiCaprio and reading some books on space and sports.
