Jada Pinkett Smith had an impressive start to her career, starring in films like The Nutty Professor and Scream 2. However, she recently revealed that hitting the big time wasn't the key to happiness for her.

In an emotional episode of Red Table Talk, the star’s Facebook Watch series, the 47-year-old claimed she became "extremely suicidal" when she first found fame.

Describing her "nervous breakdown", she said: "I had gotten to LA and gotten a certain amount of success and realised that that wasn’t the answer. [The success] wasn’t what was going to make everything okay. [It] actually made this worse. I was extremely suicidal, I had a complete emotional collapse."

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The mother of Jaden and Willow went onto admit that she didn't know what was happening to her at the time.

"It’s like when you just don’t have control over emotions, your thoughts, you feel completely and utterly out of control," she said. "I don’t even think at that particular time I understood what I was going through. Now I know that it was what people would consider a nervous breakdown."

The Bad Moms star's comments come after she spoke about her battle with severe depression in a teaser trailer for the episode.

Speaking to her 18-year-old daughter, Willow, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, she confessed she battled with her mental health for years.

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"I was severely depressed, severely, and that was something I battled with for years," she said. "Waking up in the morning was the worst part of the day, and would take me hours just to get into [it] … by the time the evening time came, I was at least like, 'ok, I’m good'. But then you go to sleep again and then you gotta… you gotta restart."

Red Table Talk has been full of confessions for Jada; in an earlier episode, she revealed she cried on her wedding day because she "never wanted to be married".

Talking candidly about marrying her husband of 20 years, Will Smith, she claimed she realised her life was "never going to be the same" when she tied the knot.

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"It was almost as if [my mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones] was like, 'You have to get married.' I was under so much pressure being a young actress. Being young, pregnant… I just didn’t know what to do. But I knew I never wanted to be married," she said. "I was so upset that I had to have a wedding. I was so pissed. I went crying down the freaking aisle. I cried the whole way down the aisle!"

In addition, her and her famous husband have spoken openly on the show about the day their "marriage came crashing down", with Will claiming they had to "destroy our marriage," as a way of repairing their relationship.

Full episodes of Red Table Talk can be viewed here.

Jada Pinkett Smith has explained why maintaining a healthy sex life with husband Will Smith is difficult.

In a recent appearance on Red Table Talk with guest Gwyneth Paltrow, Pinkett Smith came clean about the realities of her sex life.

"It's hard," Pinkett Smith said of her physical relationship with Smith. "The thing Will and I talk about a lot is the journey."

"We started in this at a very young age, you know, 22 years old. That's why the accountability part really hit for me because I think you expect your partner to know [what you need], especially when it comes to sex."

Watch Jada Pinkett Smith open up about her sex life with Will Smith:

The couple tied the knot in 1997, and went on to welcome son Jaden, 23, and daughter Willow, 20.

The pair have been very open about their relationship, admitting they no longer refer to each other as married anymore.

During her discussion with Paltrow, Jada Pinkett Smith said: "It's like, 'Well, if you love me, you should know. If you love me, you should read my mind.' That's a huge pitfall."

"Someone doesn't read your mind, and we feel crushed," Paltrow chimed in. "Where do we get that from?"

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"You tell me what you need. Tell me what you want, and on top of it, I know that I have to be accountable to do the same... I really try," Pinkett Smith added.

"It's uncomfortable, but it's deeply healthy," she said. "And I think around sex, because it's something that we don't talk about and there's so much fantasy around it."

Last month, Will Smith told GQ that the pair aren't monogamous, saying that Jada "never believed in a conventional marriage."

Last year, the couple's union made headlines after rapper August Alsina claimed that he had engaged in a relationship with Jada with Will's permission.

Jada initially denied the claims, but when she and Will took part in an interview for her web show Red Table Talk, she said that an "entanglement" had occurred.

 

Admitting that while their marriage was initially monogamous, they later decided to open it up after they were "both miserable and clearly something had to change."

What's more, Will made it clear that it wasn't just Jada who explored other romantic avenues during their marriage, as he revealed that he, too, engaged in other sexual relationships.

"Jada never believed in conventional marriage. Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship. So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up," he explained.

Watch Will and Jada open up about her 'entanglement' with August Alsina:

He went on: "There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.

"We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison.

"And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love."

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Willow Smith has opened up about her battles with anxiety.

During the latest episode of Red Table Talk, the 21-year-old singer had a conversation with 26-year-old model Ireland Baldwin, where she spoke about her experience with anxiety throughout her childhood.

Per Insider, Smith recalled that "it was rough" for her and that she felt like her mother didn't understand because she was dealing with her own trauma.

The 'Whip My Hair' star revealed: "I feel like when I was growing up, she didn't understand my anxiety because she, growing up, had seen her friends die. She had been through so much stuff that my issues to her kinda felt [smaller]."

Check out Willow's comments in the episode below:

Smith continued: "And that was very frustrating for me as a child, because I was like, 'How can you not see my internal, emotional struggle?'"

In a previous episode of Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith opened up about her childhood experience and how "normal" it was to witness gun violence and drug addiction.

The 'Meet Me At Our Spot' singer also said that it wasn't until recently that she had a conversation about anxiety with her mother and that she "forgives" her. Pinkett Smith, 50, later acknowledged that she was suppressing her own anxiety for years, and that's why it was hard to acknowledge her daughter's struggle.

Willow Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith at the Oscars. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy

“And she was pushing it down and pushing it down for so many years. Like, [my mom] had no idea," Smith stated. "So I kind of had to forgive her a little bit for being like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it, but like, it’s really not that bad.’"

The Matrix Revolutions actor further explained that it was difficult to understand what her daughter was going through because of how different their public lifestyles were.

"I don't know what it's like to be a child under hot lights," she said. "And then just really not knowing how to comfort her, not knowing what help she needed, not understanding the behavior."

Smith later told her mother that her being open about experiencing anxiety "changed" her life and that she's her best friend.

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Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed that Will Smith has "gone too far" on occasion when discussing matters of menstruation and PMS with their 19-year-old daughter, Willow.

The actress was interviewing rapper T.I on her Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk, on Monday, when the subject of parenting daughters was brought up. This comes after the rapper was widely condemned for claiming that he takes his 19-year-old daughter, Deyjah, to the gynaecologist every year to ensure her hymen is still intact, and that she's still a virgin.

The interview in question occurred on the podcast, Ladies Like Us, with Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham. When asked by the hosts if he's had the "sex talk" with his daughters, T.I said "Not only have we had the conversation - we have yearly trips to the gynaecologist to check her hymen. Yes I go with her."

In the Red Table Talk, Jada said she could emphasise with why the 39-year-old would make such comments, because her own husband, Will Smith, has made insensitive remarks to their daughter.

Watch the interview below: 

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"There’s certain things about raising a man that I can’t know. I would tell [Will], “Love your daughter, let me teach her,” because there’s certain sensitivities that you might not understand and have just because of your relationship in the world is different than a woman’s relationship," Jada said to T.I.

"I understood that because I’m in this house with Will and he be saying the craziest stuff. He don’t understand the level. And thank God he has me and he’s got Willow … we educate that joker before he leaves this house. You know what I mean? He’s one of those that likes to tell stories and sometimes goes too far [sic]," she continued.

Jada then added that Willow has "gone at" her father for his "insensitive" comments regarding her periods: "Willow has gone at her dad several times for very insensitive comments, whether it’s around menstruation or, you know, 'You must be PMS-ing,' and she’s like, 'That right there, we not gon’ do that.' Every day, it’s a work in progress [sic]."

Jada Pinkett Smith had admitted in a recently-resurfaced 2018 episode of Red Table Talk that she "really didn't want to get married" to Will Smith.

In the wake of the altercation between her husband, 53, and Chris Rock, 57, at the Oscars last month, some years-old footage of Pinkett Smith is being re-watched by fans.

In one episode of her Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk, which featured her husband Smith as a guest, Pinkett Smith told how she "really didn't wanna get married" when she fell pregnant with their now-23-year-old son Jaden.

"I really didn't wanna get married," she stated.

Smith then cut in to add: "We only got married because Gammy [Pinkett Smith's mom Adrienne Banfield-Norris] was crying."

Pinkett Smith said: “It was almost as if Gammy was like, ‘You have to get married, so let’s talk about the wedding.’”

The 50-year-old Matrix star went on to say: “I was under so much pressure, you know, being a young actress, being young, and I was just, like, pregnant and I just didn’t know what to do. But I just knew, I never wanted to be married.”

Banfield-Norris then took over to share her side of the story, confessing that she didn't recall her daughter not wanting to get married, but rather, that she simply did not want to have a wedding.

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She said: “I remember feeling very strongly and wanting you guys to be married. I do remember [wanting you and Will to get married], but I don’t remember your rejection of the idea of marriage. I remember the rejection of the idea of a wedding but not of a marriage.”

“The wedding was horrible,” Banfield-Norris then recalled. “It was a mess. Jada was sick, she was very unpleasant … She didn’t cooperate with anything.”

Jada agreed before sharing: “And I was so upset that I had to have a wedding. I was so p****d I went crying down the freaking aisle. I cried the whole way down the aisle.”

The Girls Trip star added: “I didn’t want to get married and now Gammy’s gone running to Will, crying about how I don’t want to have a wedding. Now I’m being forced to have a wedding, when really I just wanted it to be the two of us [her and Will] on a mountain, because this is serious business.”

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