Jada Pinkett Smiith open up about her children, her evolution and husband Will Smith in June/July Issue of UPTOWN magazine. The petite mogul who’s groomed her children for success along with her box office heavy-weight husband Will Smith puts a stop the criticism around the children and the strength of her marriage.
On the real Jada
“Sometimes you have to live who you’re not, to know who you are,” she says.
“That same girl you saw in Menace is the same girl who even then was listening to metal. But nobody knew that. If you talk to the Queen Latifahs and the Tupac Shakurs, they’d say, ‘Of course!’ I’ve always been a lot of things.”
On shutting up the critics about her children
“There are so many other kids you can worry about. My kids? They’re going to be all right. I get why people would criticize. But people need to know that Will and I would never put our children in a situation that would bring them detriment, my kids have no idea how I grew up, Even in knowing my story, they couldn’t know what that means. They have no RE-ALI-TY. None.
My feeling is, my kids need to have challenges, in a safe way. If I survived everything that I survived in Baltimore and Will survived everything he survived in Philly, these kids surely can survive the Hollywood game.
With so many heavyweights surrounding them–from Beyoncé and Jay-Z to Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony–if they can fail in a circle like that, then they weren’t going to win in the first place. All I want for Trey (Will’s oldest son from his first marriage), Jaden, and Willow is happiness.
On the personalities of Willow and Jaden
“Believe it or not, they’re both like me and Will. … Willow’s a lot like me — just in the chances she’ll take. And then, Jaden has the drive of his father. Jaden and I are what I call introverted extroverts. Willow and Will are more pow! Jaden and I, well, we don’t give that to just anybody.”
On spending time with Will
We create together; we love on each other, We raise our kids together. We are building something together. People think that Will and I don’t spend a lot of time together. Too much time, actually, if you ask me, It’s always nice to have a little time apart. Sometimes you need that.
Check out Jada Pinkett Smith behind the scenes of her UPTOWN shoot
