Will Smith opened up about his personal life on Red Table Talk hosted by his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
In the special Father’s Day episode, Will opened up about his first wife, Sheree Zampino, and how their divorce affected him. After three years of marriage and having one child, Willard Carroll ‘Trey’ Smith III, they split. It wasn’t an easy divorce and the custody battle was messy. Will said divorce was the “worst thing in his adult life.”
“Divorce was the ultimate failure for me. I’ve been hurt a lot in my adult life, but I don’t think anything touches the failure of getting divorced from my 2-year-old son’s mother.”
Will also spoke on the tough love he received from his dad growing up and how it shaped him. Will admitted that he didn’t agree with all of his father’s ways, like being aggressive and having a temper. Although Will didn’t like some of the things his father did, he doesn’t resent him.
The Bad Boy actor also talked about parenthood and how he realized he couldn’t push his kids to do something they didn’t want to do. Like when Willow shaved her when she was 12 after she dropped “Whip My Hair.”
Willow didn’t want to be on tour anymore but Will kept insisting she stay which is why she “rebelled” against him.
‘It was so devastating to me when she shaved her head bald because her record is Whip My Hair. That’s a protest against me…
“I took that as a sign from the gods. I was like, this little girl is rejecting what I’m trying to do for her. She doesn’t want it. She was crying, she was scared, but what she wasn’t gonna do was something she didn’t want to do…”
Check out the episode here: