Jada Pinkett-Smith hasn't just had a successful acting career in her own right; she's also a part of a family of stars, who have each created lucrative work across film and music.
She met Will Smith on the set of his show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when she auditioned for the role of his girlfriend. She didn't get the part (she was too short apparently), but regardless, they became friends. By the following year, they were dating, and in 1997 they got married. In 1998, her son Jaden was born, and in 2000 Willow was born (right in time for the Willennium).
Both Willow and Jaden have had their fair share of success since, making the Smith family one full of talent, but the matriarch of the family isn't slowing down quite yet. Recently, Jada has starred in comedies Bad Moms and Girls Trip, and in 2012 launched a web series titled Red Table Talk, where she aims to encourage dialogue within families through conversations with her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and daughter Willow.
In the past, they have opened up on the show about each of their experiences as women of colour from different generations, while Jada recently revealed how she has been coping with hair loss.
Now, the 46-year-old actress has opened up once more about a sensitive part of her life: addiction. According to Jada, she has faced various kinds of addiction throughout her life, including alcohol and sex. On the latest episode of Red Table Talk, she explained how she once thought that "everything could be fixed by sex":
"My sort of addictions jump. They jump around. When I was younger, I definitely think I had a sex addiction of some kind, yes, that everything could be fixed by sex. You know what I’m saying?
"I remember reaching a rock bottom that time I was in the house by myself and I had those two bottles of wine and was going for the third bottle. And I was like, 'Now hold up. You’re in this house by yourself going onto your third bottle of wine? You might have a problem'."
According to the actress, quitting her addictions wasn't as hard for her as it can be for others, as she claimed she can go "cold turkey" and cut out vices from her lifestyle without much trouble:
"I can just get obsessed with things. It’s not what you’re doing but how you’re with it. Why you’re doing it. It’s the behaviour that’s attached to it because if you want to have a lot of sex, that’s great, but why are you having all that sex? That’s what you’ve got to look at."
Luckily, it seems that Jada has turned things around and treated those addictions she used to turn to. Now, by creating a space where she and others can speak openly about these issues, she can help others in similar situations.
