From the outside looking in, one could probably think a 20-something Jada Pinkett Smith had it all — before she had the “Smith” in her name, of course.
Because her first major acting job turned out to be on a hit sitcom with “A Different World.” She then starred in some ’90s films that many would consider classics, like “Menace II Society” and “Set It Off.”
But it turns out that Jada, now 47, wasn’t happy at that time, and like many others who’ve reached a dream or goal, she realized that achievement doesn’t equate to happiness. She talked about that time of her life on the latest edition of “Red Table Talk,” which focused on the subject of mental health.
“I had an emotional breakdown that definitely I feel like affected my mental stability,” she said. “I had gotten to L.A. and gotten a certain amount of success and realized that that wasn’t the answer … That wasn’t what was going to make everything OK. … Actually, it made things worse, and I became extremely suicidal, and I had a complete emotional collapse.”
“It’s like when you just don’t have control [over your] emotions, your thoughts, you feel completely and utterly out of control,” added Jada. “I don’t even think at that particular point in time I understood what I was going through. Now I know that it was what people would consider a nervous breakdown.”
Jada eventually healed herself by letting go of some unhealthy ideas about herself and life in general, and she learned to deal with ups and downs far better.
One definite up for Jada was this past Christmas Day, since she spent it at home with her family. She also documented it on social media.
Her son Jaden Smith did some funny magic tricks in one of the clips, Will Smith‘s eldest son Trey showed up in another video, and in a third Will and his daughter Willow Smith debated about whether the holiday song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has sexist lyrics.
Jada also shared a multi-generational family Christmas photo, which can be seen below.
