What a bizarre turn of events. Despite his whole "Mr Nice Guy" persona, Will Smith has always made me feel uneasy, but I could never put my finger on exactly why. They have a strange, cultish family dynamic all round.
I remember a commenter once said years ago “the Smith children weren’t raised, they were unleashed to the world” aka the Smiths devoted their childhood to preparing them for stardom and reflecting well back on their parents.
for a long time I’ve felt something was very off with Jada. Years ago I saw her doing a music interview for some metal band she was in, and they never took off. I remember thinking she was never as successful as Will, her acting/music career always dwarfed next to his. I don’t think we’d know much about her if she hadn’t latched onto, firstly Tupac and then Will Smith. Will smith’s music is iconic. His TV roles are iconic. His film roles are iconic. But Jada? Not so much. I can’t think of a single song released by her. Any movies I’ve seen, her acting is poor and cringey.
my gut feeling is telling me she’s the driver behind curating this perfect image and the extreme toxicity that revolves around this family.
1. she slept with her sons friend. Regardless of the age gap, that’s crossing many, many boundaries. If Will had slept with his young daughters friend, he’d be seen as a creep.
2. She essentially gas-lit Will and the general public during that red table talk, which basically felt like PR damage control for
Jada’s image, when she trivialised it as an “entanglement” and romanticised staying in a marriage where she’d been unfaithful. She claimed during this talk that they were on a break at the time, but frankly I don’t buy that. The whole talk felt forced, and designed to be favourable to Jada, and raised more Qs than it made sense.
3. The smiths later come out and say there are “no surprises” alluding to their marriage being open - if that’s the case then why did Will look like a broken man? Why frame the sleeping-with-your-sons-friend as some mistake/ ok because you were separated anyway, if your marriage is open?
4. Wills book. It reads like a broken man. His wife comparing him to Tupac. His children calling Tupac their 2nd father or something to that effect. It reads like he was mentally, in a vulnerable place and susceptible to abuse. It reads (unintentionally) as if Jada has been mentally keeping him down and abusing him. Because his self esteem is low he isn’t even aware of it.
willow and Jayden themselves seem utterly lost. A few years ago Jayden looked positively unwell and frequently comes out with weird conspiracy theories. Willow shaved her head onstage and recently had to pull out of a tour.
the only member of that family who doesn’t appear to be struggling is Jada. For years rumours were that their marriage was open and now they’ve pretty much confirmed that. Well, now the rumours are that Jada is coercive and emotionally abusive. Time will tell.