Jada Pinkett Smith felt it was “important” to have her daughter Willow Smith present when she spoke about domestic violence, so she could learn from her.
The 47-year-old actress openly discussed a time when an ex-boyfriend became “aggressive” with her during her Facebook Watch series ‘Red Table Talk’ earlier this week and has defended her decision to speak about the heavy topic in front of her 18-year-old daughter Willow.
Speaking during Wednesday’s (21.11.18) discussion about the latest episode, Jada – who has Willow, as well as 20-year-old son Jaden, with husband Will Smith – said: “A lot of people were talking about the idea of having Willow at the table and talking about this subject matter. I just need for people to understand that Willow’s not always at the table to talk about experiences or to act as an expert of any kind, but as a student because her mother and her grandmother have gone through a lot of things in life and it’s really about her hearing about our experiences and us being open to understanding what is happening in her life as well.”
The ‘Girls Trip’ star insisted that discussing the topic in the presence of her daughter would also help “prevent” the teenager from ending up in similar relationships.
She added: “This is a conversation. And I think it’s important that we understand and I hope that we can be even more inclusive in our own families with our young adults because that’s how we learn. It’s called prevention as well.”
During the talk show on Monday (19.11.18), Jada had alleged her former partner became aggressive with her in the car, and she had run into the house and grabbed “a big old knife” to defend herself. She said at the time: “I ran to the house, I had to take my clothes off, I had to take off my heels, and I always travel with a black Russell hoodie and black Russell sweats just in case something pops off.
“And I remember jumping in that sweatsuit, grabbing a big old knife from the kitchen, and hiding in his son’s room. And I’ll never forget, he came through the back sliding door, like on a creepy creep, like he was going to sneak up on me or something like that …
“I came out of his son’s bedroom and I was like, ‘Don’t come near me.’ And he said the quintessential line you hear in movies all the time, ‘You think I would hurt you? I would never do that to you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I am in trouble.’ I was in trouble.”
