Jada Pinkett Smith's Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk, has been a revelation -- in more ways than one.
The actress and mother of two is getting candid like never before in her new online show, which features her sitting down with special guests and family members like her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, and her 17-year-old daughter, Willow, and opening up about tough topics like loss, motherhood, and marriage.
So far, episodes of Red Table Talk have featured Jada reflecting on her relationship with husband Will Smith's first wife, getting real with her kids about their childhood in the spotlight, and sitting down with Gabrielle Union to hash out the truth behind their 17-year "feud."
Here's a look at some of the biggest revelations so far:
1. Willow used to cut her wrists during her struggles with childhood fame.
One of the most emotional moments on Red Table Talk came when Willow confessed to her mom that she used to self-harm during a dark period of her childhood in the spotlight.
“I would have to say I honestly feel like I lost my sanity at one point,” the young star recalled. “It was after that whole ‘Whip My Hair’ thing, and I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of just in this gray area of ‘Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?’”
“After the tour and the promotion and all of that ... they wanted me to finish my album," she continued. And I was like, 'I’m not gonna do that.' After all of that kind of settled down, and it was, like, a lull, I was listening to a lot of dark music and it was just so crazy, and I was just plunged into this black hole and I was, like, cutting myself and doing crazy things... I honestly felt like I was experiencing so much emotional pain but my physical circumstances weren't reflecting that.”
Jada was clearly shocked by her daughter's revelation, saying she had "no idea" and "never saw any signs of it." Willow revealed that not even her older brothers, Jaden and Trey, knew about what she was doing, and that she only told one friend.
“I mean, you can't even see it," she said, checking for scars on her forearms and wrists. "There’s still a little something there. Totally lost my sanity for a moment there. I never talk about it because it was such a short, weird point in my life, but you have to pull yourself out of it.
"One night I was like, this is actually psychotic, and after that I just stopped," Willow recalled. "It's been, like, five years."
2. Willow and Jaden have regrets about how their parents handled their careers as child stars.
Another emotional Red Table Talk moment came when Jada asked Willow and her 19-year-old brother, Jaden, for their candid thoughts on growing up in the spotlight.
"I only have one terrible experience, which is 'Whip My Hair,'" Willow admitted, when asked about times she had difficulty connecting to her parents. "Just that the values of the people around me should have been the opposite. You and Daddy should have been like, 'OK, we value her musical growth and knowledge more than her popularity.'"
"Not just so much about a hit record," Jaden added, noting that he went through a similar struggle after starring in 2010's The Karate Kid.
Jada explained that her and Will's attitude came from their own drastically different childhoods, where they had to fight for everything. The actress said she grew up in a violent neighborhood and used to sell drugs, and that Will grew up with a "lot of abuse."
"For us [it's] that survival mentality," the 46-year-old actress noted. "Your dad and I, we were like, 'Oh, man, she'll be set up for life, this is her start."
"Make them a freaking workaholic soldier so that they can always take care of themselves," Jaden chimes in of his parents' mindset.
Later in the episode, Jada got emotional while reflecting on her perceived shortcomings as a parent.
"You know what? I think parents have to give themselves much more forgiveness," she said, fighting tears. "When you become a parent, you have these huge ideals, even for yourself, because we all are coming into parenting with our own childhood traumas. And you're hoping you can fix all that through your own rearing of your children, and you can't. Your kids are gonna have their burdens. And even though I see how it might have hurt you, it's what I knew."
3. Willow's introduction to sex came when she walked in on Jada and Will.
This one came as a surprise even to Jada!
During a roundtable interview with ET's Kevin Frazier prior to Red Table Talk's first episode, the mother of two revealed that they held nothing back on the show, no matter what. "[Willow] shocked me when I said, 'Well, what was your first introduction to sex?'" Jada recalled.
To her mom's surprise, Willow answered, "Walking in on you and Daddy." "I was like, 'When did that happen?!' Because I had no idea," Jada told Frazier. "I was like, 'What did you see?... Oh my god, I need to get this child some therapy,'" she joked.
During the episode, Willow recalled that the accidental reveal happened during a vacation in Aspen. "It wasn't like I was seeing everything, the room was still dark. It was silhouetted... It was like when I walk into you meditating. It's like, when Mommy's meditating, don't get into her business."
4. Jada has gotten very candid with her sons about sex and relationships.
"I knew the night -- the night -- Jaden lost his virginity," she told Willow and her best friend, Telana Lynum, during a no-holds-barred conversation about love and sex. "And I had a moment with Trey in the kitchen where I looked at him and I said, 'You've had sex.' And he ran into the bathroom ... I was like, 'You don't have to be embarrassed.' It was like their innocence was gone."
"I can always tell with some of your friends too," she added, addressing her daughter. "But I can always tell, you can just see the maturity."
However, the actress admitted that she hasn't always approved of the women Jaden and Trey have dated -- though she said Willow's choices have been "spectacular."
"There've been a few -- I've been concerned," she confessed of some of Jaden and Trey's romantic partners. "You got to go with the flow. Your kids aren’t always going to date people that you love, but I’ve learned that you really have to just be there and support, because [if you don’t] that can create a conflict that you can’t get around.”
5. Jada learned about "self-pleasure" from her grandmother, and says she was once "addicted" to giving herself orgasms.
When it comes to her own upbringing, Jada recalled that her first sexual experience was "amazing," since her grandmother was very open with her about sex from a young age.
“My grandmother taught me about self-pleasuring because she wanted me to know that that pleasure was from me,” she shared with Willow and Telana. “She didn’t want me to fall into the hands of a man, and if he gave me pleasure, to think that that was him. And she taught me at nine!”
However, she later explained to the girls that, when she was around 21, she became addicted to giving herself orgasms.
"I gave myself multiples first,” Jada told her daughter and her friend. “Multiple orgasms. I was really into it at one point. Just because I was in an exploration state and I was abstaining from men. And I actually think I went through kind of an addiction, too, with it. And then one day, I was just like, ‘Enough. You’re having five orgasms a day.’ Yeah, you get addicted. You can create so much pleasure, you constantly want it."
6. Jada had a rough start with Will's first wife, Sheree Zampino.
The women sat down for the very first episode of Red Table Talk and got candid about the rocky road that led to their "blended family."
"Here's the one thing I will say in hindsight: Because I didn't understand marriage, I didn't understand divorce, I will say that I probably should've fell back," Jada mused, as she reflected on how she and Will got together as his marriage to Sheree was ending. "When I think back about where I was, some of my insensitivity, some of my inconsideration just in regards to you guys unwinding a marriage, and then me, trying to get in there..."
"And I was like, 'Bless her heart,'" Sheree retorted.
The two then discussed a particularly memorable fight they had over the phone. “I called back and happened to say, ‘B***h, you livin’ in the house I picked out,” Sheree recalled. “And you said, ‘It’s my house now.'"
The relationship between the two women is on much steadier ground now. As Jada puts it, "We've been doing this for 20-plus years," referring to the pair's carefully maintained rapport, with a bond that is forged through their love for Will and Sheree's 25-year-old son, Trey.
“I’ll tell you, on this side of things, my son could not have a better bonus mom,” Sheree gushed.
7. Jada's "feud" with Gabrielle Union was all about age and ego.
The actresses buried the hatchet on an episode of Red Table Talk, sitting down face-to-face to hash out the realities behind their 17-year feud, which was, according to them, more of an unspoken tension.
"Jada nor I never used the word 'feud,' so it just became more of a media creation. Kind of like, back in the day, neither one of us actually knows what took place back then," Gabrielle explained on the Today show after the episode's release. "But the people that we had around us were like, 'Well, you know how she feels about you,' and they were like, 'Well, you know how she feels about you.' And then it was like, 'OK, girl, bye.' For 17 years."
"Gab and I, we had a bit of a break, we don't know how, and she's been open to this healing, she's been open to this conversation," Jada said on Red Table Talk, before explaining how cathartic it felt to just apologize to Union.
"It felt so good on the phone with you to even just go, 'Hey, I'm sorry that I didn't even take the time to talk to you, you know?' And then I had to just apologize, and just thinking to myself, 'Damn, Jada! That was some petty a** s**t!'" she reflected. "Every time we would see each other [over the years] we were always cordial and always nice, but it was always tension."
During another episode, the actress elaborated on how she fell out with Union while chatting with her gal pals Karynne Tencer and Mia Pitts.
“I think who I was back then was a young, egotistical girl who basically was just like, ‘OK, if she wants to have a problem with me that’s fine, ’cause what difference does it make?’" Jada explained. “And one of the points that Gab brought up is that it makes a big difference, because at the end of the day, there’s only a handful of us in this business. And I just think we grow older and we mature and we realize that you really can’t appreciate yourself without appreciating other women.
"I was just young and stupid and not wanting to share," she added. "That's all that is. It's ego."
8. Jada is "terrified" about losing her hair.
The Gotham star has also gotten candid about health and beauty on her series, opening up about her fear of losing her hair.
“It was terrifying when it first started,” she shared. “I was in the shower one day, then had handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, ‘Oh, my God, am I going bald?’”
The mother of two said she was “shaking with fear” following the shower incident, which prompted her to cut her hair.
“My hair has been a big part of me,” Jada explained. “Taking care of my hair has been a beautiful ritual and having the choice to have hair or not. And then one day to be like, ‘Oh, my God, I might not have that choice anymore.’”
The actress later followed up with fans on Instagram, revealing that she had received steroid injections that were "helping, not curing, but helping" her hair loss.
See more on the revealing series in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
