52-year-old Jada Pinkett Smith takes a look at her eventful life. In a few days her memoirs will be published under the title “Worthy”. In it, Will Smith’s (55) wife describes the difficult life circumstances that she had to cope with at a young age. To pursue her dreams, she led a risky double life. Although she was already considered a promising actress at school, she also made a career on the street as a drug dealer. In an exclusive interview with people.com, she speaks openly about her teenage years in Baltimore.
Jada Pinkett Smith grew up with drug addict parents and had to fend for herself
Jada Pinkett Smith could only dream of a safe and sheltered childhood. Because her parents were drug addicts, she grew up in different families. Only her grandmother, who has since died, gave her support, but her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris also later became an important pillar in the actress’ life after her heroin withdrawal. Looking back, however, the Hollywood star remembers the lack of self-reference she had in her childhood. “If you’re not your parents’ priority, you don’t know how to make yourself a priority,” explains the now 52-year-old.
Jada realized early on that she was on her own. “I knew that I had to provide everything I needed,” she continues in the exclusive interview. “I decided to sell drugs.” In Jada’s reality, this was nothing unusual. “When we were growing up, it was the drug dealers who had wealth,” explains the actress. “We saw that as a success without question.” Although the now 52-year-old had been working in “legal” jobs since she was twelve, she saw selling drugs as her path to more “financial freedom.”
Will Smith’s wife: ‘It really helped me, but it put me in great danger’
“I thought I would definitely become a queen,” says Jada, recalling her decision to pursue a career as a drug dealer without using drugs herself. But the chosen path turned out to be extremely dangerous. Jada reports on life-threatening situations in which she was not only tricked, but even threatened with a 9-millimeter gun to the head. “That was my survival solution back then,” she admits. “And it really helped me. But it put me in great danger and I hurt a lot of people along the way.”
Jada further reports in an interview with “people.com” that she thought she was doing really well at the time, especially since she also spent money “generously” on others due to the financial income. A fallacy. “You really think that you are helping without realizing that you are also part of the problem,” the actress has to realize afterwards.
Nevertheless, the actress learned many lessons from this time. “The most important thing the streets of Baltimore taught me was fearlessness and the ability to recognize danger,” explains the mother of two. An experience that she took with her when she finally went to Hollywood in 1990 to start a new life.
