Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are one of the most recognizable couples in the entertainment industry. Their children Willow, Jaden, and Trey are also quite famous, with the family working in film, music, and television. Fans were shocked when Jada Pinkett Smith revealed her relationship with a younger musician in front of her family - but to Willow Smith, her parents are simply living their truth.
In a recent interview with Independent, Willow Smith shared how she really feels about her parents' occasionally tumultuous relationship. Some children would be averse to discussions of their parent’s drama, but Willow Smith acknowledges their multifaceted personalities. She said:
I feel I’ve always understood that my parents are their own people. A lot of kids think of their parents like… ‘Your whole identity is for me.’ [But] seeing them in this lifestyle we had, from a very young age it was clear to me they weren’t just my parents. They’re full, other people who have their own emotions.
It’s true: Willow Smith's parents were firmly entrenched in the public eye even before she was born. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith were already established, and it’s difficult to reshape such strong identities. Everyone contains multitudes, and very few people are just one thing.
It helps that Willow Smith regularly appears on Red Table Talk, a roundtable discussion that features her mother Jada Pinkett Smith and her grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Norris (also known as Gammy). The three generations of women explore topics like mental illness, drug addiction, and sexuality in a manner that is both disarmingly and refreshingly direct. It was on an episode of Red Table Talk that Jada Pinkett Smith revealed that she entered a relationship with August Alsina while separated from Will Smith, and her husband has also spoken his piece on the show.
It can be scary to have such honest conversations, but Willow Smith welcomes a bit of healthy debate. She identifies as polyamorous, and spent one memorable episode educating her family on the finer workings of the label. Willow Smith aspires to use these revelations to evolve and broaden her horizons. She explained:
It’s exciting for me – when different perspectives start to come out and clash a little bit. So much of the time we just agree: ‘Go girl! 100 percent! Mmhmm!’ So I like when that happens. That’s how you grow. If you’re always agreeing, you’re not creating a new idea…Humans get so much comfort from all the structures we’ve created for ourselves. Everything is in its little box.
New episodes of Red Table Talk are currently airing on Facebook Watch. You can catch Willow Smith performing alongside Billie Eilish on the ‘Happier Than Ever’ world tour beginning in February.
