In a candid interview with PEOPLE to promote her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” Jada Pinkett Smith bravely opens up about her past struggles and experiences. The actress delves into deeply personal topics, shedding light on her marriage to Will Smith, her battle with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts, the controversial 2022 Oscars, and even her surprising involvement in drug dealing during her teenage years.
Speaking on her secret double life as a performer at school, but a drug dealer at night, Jada explained “When you aren’t the priority of your parents, you don’t know how to be a priority to yourself. I had parents who were addicted to drugs,” she told PEOPLE.
As it was previously shared, Jada’s mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, battled a drug addiction but eventually got sober and has become an important figure in her daughter’s life. As for her father, (Robsol Pinkett Jr. died in 2010,) he had a violent and abusive past with Jada and would come in and out of her life. The 52-year-old went on to share that “Not having a healthy foundation, as I would come to find out way into my adulthood, had some really strong effects in regard to how I saw myself. I knew that anything that I needed was something I needed to provide for,” Jada explained. “I decided to sell drugs.”
It was a scary decision for Jada but at the time she believed it was the only way of getting by. “Growing up, the drug dealers were the ones that had affluence. That’s what we readily saw as success. And so for me, considering my circumstances at the time, my mother was not doing well. She was a high-functioning heroin addict. We didn’t have the things that we should have. The home we lived in was not taken care of.”
Jada noted that she did have “legit” jobs, but couldn’t fathom not having enough to care for herself and her family.
“What if something happens to my mother? What if she doesn’t come home one night? Either overdosed, arrested, whatever. And so, I decided to sell drugs. I decided to sell crack cocaine,” she continued to explain.
Jada went on to tell PEOPLE that she was so deep into that world that she thought “she was going to be a queenpin, for sure. You can get caught up in the scenery.”
Eventually and thankfully down the line that all came to an end as she pursued an entertainment career which turned out to be a success for her.
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In Jada’s new wide-ranging book, she talks more about all the challenges she faced while being in the limelight as a star and a power couple with her husband, Will Smith.
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