Jada Pinkett Smith Shares Mental Health Struggles and Willow’s Self Harm

Jada Pinkett Smith opened up the importance of mental health while visiting Megyn Kelly Today on Wednesday (June 13).

The actress was on the show to promote her new Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk. She explained that she hopes to use the show as a way to encourage people to discuss their mental health.

“I think that at 47 I’ve come through so much, you know, and the one thing that I’ve realized in my life, people who have had the courage to share their testimonies with me have been such powerful elixirs,” she said. “I just felt like also in this world today we talk so much about what’s happening on the outside and we don’t talk enough about what’s going on within us. I wanted a place where we could feel safe to do that, and I do that often within my own family.”

Kelly brought up an episode in which Pinkett Smith’s daughter Willow revealed how fame affected her at a young age and even led her to cutting as a coping mechanism. After admitting she was shocked by her daughter’s revelation, she said, “In that particular moment Willow was speaking from a place of power and as her mother I needed to meet her there instead of crumbling within my own insecurities or within my own doubts or ‘Oh my goodness. What did I do wrong?'” She continued, “It was like my daughter was revealing something to me in a place of power in which she had come through, so in that moment I had to meet her in that space that she was in and go, ‘Okay.’”

Pinkett Smith then reflected on an Instagram post she shared on Monday (June 11) in which she opened up about her battles with her mental health and admitted that she has considered committing suicide. “One thing I’ve learned in my life over the years is that mental health is something we should practice daily, not just when issues arise,” she wrote on the Instagram postaccompanied by pictures of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain.

“There’s not one answer. It’s like life is a journey to help us get to a place of healing and I wish somebody had told me that. I wish somebody had told me that it’s gonna be okay. You know, we’re gonna have obstacles. You’re gonna have difficult times. You’re gonna have really dark times,” she said. “Just understand. Keep stepping, cause life starts to reveal itself to you and the light will come. Keep stepping.”

“For me, that’s another message that I just want to share because there’s so many people that are going through such difficulty,” she concluded.