Smith continued her 'Red Table Talk' discussion about domestic violence after receiving backlash.
Jada Pinkett Smith thinks it’s important to include the younger generation in important discussions.
On Wednesday, the 47-year-old actress opened up during her Red Table Talk discussion about the backlash and “flack” she received after including her 18-year-old daughter, Willow, in an episode earlier in the week dealing with the same topic.
"A lot of people were talking about the idea of having Willow at the table and talking about this subject matter,” Smith noted, with her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, by her side. "I just need for people to understand that Willow’s not always at the table to talk about experiences or to act as an expert of any kind, but as a student because her mother and her grandmother have gone through a lot of things in life and it’s really about her hearing about our experiences and us being open to understanding what is happening in her life as well.”
Despite the criticism, Smith noted the importance of involving her teen daughter in the discussion.
"This is a conversation. And I think it’s important that we understand and I hope that we can be even more inclusive in our own families with our young adults, because that’s how we learn,” Smith said. "It’s called prevention as well.”
Adrienne noted that roughly 1.5 million high schoolers in the U.S. admit to being “intentionally hit or physically harmed in the last year by someone they are romantically involved with,” further highlighting the significance of including Willow.
The domestic violence talk the family went through earlier in the week was very emotional as Adrienne opened up about her physically abusive relationship with Smith’s late father, Robsol Pinkett, Jr.
The discussion left both Smith and her mother in tears as they recalled her father’s alleged violent tendencies when drinking.
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