Just when people thought they knew everything about Will Smith, he dropped a bombshell: revealing he was the oldest brother to a brother and a gang of sisters.
Most people assumed, based on his hit sitcom, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” that he was an only child, companioned only by his fictional four cousins. But nothing could be further from the truth.
While celebrating National Siblings Day earlier this week, the actor seemingly recreated a childhood photo featuring himself, his mother Caroline Bright (formerly Smith), his brother Harry Smith, 53, Harry’s twin sister Ellen,53, and the collective’s older sister Pam Smith, 60.
The before and now post has received 1,221,606 likes and counting. The Smith sisters all beam with full happy smiles along with the movie star. His brother, who graduated from Hampton University, also seemed to be overwhelmed with joy. Will captioned it, “Now & Then with my kin 🙂 #nationalsiblingsday.”
Ellen hopped in the comments and wrote, “Awwwww I [love] it. We look like a dope a** box of chocolates! Hey y’all. Fam Bam what’s good?!!”
The first picture is a black-and-white flick, vividly showing the spectrum of shades that run through his immediate family. The second one, which Will posted for 2023’s National Siblings Day, is in color and shows the family posing in front of a Spiderman-themed mural of the city.
“I ain’t even know until a few years ago that Will Smith had siblings lol I thought he was an only child like fresh prince,” wrote one person who caught wind of the photos on X.
I ain't even know until a few years ago that Will Smith had siblings lol I thought he was an only child like fresh prince 😂
— 🎤N-jay 🏀 (@_Njay3) April 10, 2024
One fan wrote, “One thing Black people are gonna do is barely age lol we age up.” Another observed the whole family is aging gracefully writing, “Dang, everybody looks exactly the same!”
The majority of Will’s comments section was a flood of Portuguese remarks.
While Americans seemed to be boycotting the actor over the past few years following his infamous Oscars slap, his popularity in Brazil has skyrocketed. Apparently, Will, the actor and rapper, is one of the stars on the “Live It Up” single, which served as the official 2018 World Cup song.
Produced by U.S. DJ and songwriter Diplo, American-born rapper Nicky Jam and Albanian singer Era Istrefi joined Will to offer an anthem that continues to be one of the biggest songs during sporting events for the nation.
Not pictured for this year’s National Siblings Day are the two sisters that did not grow up with Will in the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia. Missing is another sister named Pam, as well as a younger sister named Ashley Marie Pettway Smith, born to a woman after the “Independence Day” rapper’s parents divorced. According to his memoir “Will,” the celebrity has two sisters named Pam, born to his parents from earlier marriages.
Many may not know that Will’s real name is Willard and that he is a junior, named after his father, Willard Smith Sr., a small business owner who ran an ice delivery company. He and his siblings affectionately called their hardworking and demanding father “Daddio.”
Daddio and Bright separated when Will was 13 and legally divorced in 2000. The Oscar-winning actor states in the 2021 memoir that his father, who would die in 2016 after struggling with cancer, physically abused his mother. He said when he was 9 years old, he witnessed Daddio punch his mother “in the side of the head so hard that she collapsed.”
Will has always stood by his mother’s side.
This is not the first time that Will has posted his siblings. A few of them are always hiding in plain sight.
During the Easter holiday, he shared a picture where the twins and Mom Mom (Bright’s nickname) were swarmed around loved ones including Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, Jaden Smith, grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Norris (aka Gammy), Will’s oldest, Tre Smith, and Tre’s mother, his ex-wife, Sheree Zampino.
