Will Smith is one of the most complicated celebrities around. In his heyday, he basically defined our pop culture landscape with everything from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Independence Day and Men in Black. These days, he struggles to find real hits, turning out forgettable dreck like After Earth or the generic sci-fi action flick Gemini Man.
At this point, it’s fair to say that Will Smith is more entertaining behind-the-scenes rather than on the screen. That’s largely due to the shocking confessions that he and his family keep making!
Ready for some confessions that will completely change how you view Will Smith and his family? Buckle up: this is going to be a bumpy ride!
Will Smith confirmed his bitter feud with ‘Aunt Viv’ actress
The world first discovered Will Smith in the television sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show’s humor mostly came from the fish-out-of-water hijinks that Smith’s character got into with his wealthy relatives. Along the way, he helped audiences learn the value of loving and respecting their family.
When the camera wasn’t rolling, though, Smith had a real beef with one member of his fictional family: Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Vivian. Smith thinks this is her fault, and as E! News reports, he told an Atlanta radio station that “Janet Hubert wanted the show to be ‘The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show,'” and that, “She said once, ‘I’ve been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.'”
As for Hubert, she later told TMZ that Smith probably had her fired from the show and that Smith “is still an egomaniac and has not grown up.” She then promised to never appear on a Bel Air reunion unless Smith apologized. Given her appearance in the 2020 HBO Max reunion, we can only guess Smith found a way to apologize.
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Will confessed he and Jada Pinkett Smith have an open marriage
Celebrity gossip columnists used to drive themselves crazy trying to figure out the relationship between Will Smith and his longtime wife Jada Pinkett Smith, whom he married in 1997.
After Jada Pinkett Smith revealed she had an affair with singer August Alsina on her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk in July 2020, Will decided to open the book on their marriage by revealing an even bigger shocker.
In his November 2021 memoir Will, Smith confessed that both he and Jada had engaged in extramarital affairs and in fact have an open marriage. “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… But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.”
Will admitted he failed his once-estranged oldest son Trey Smith
When you think about Will Smith’s children, you probably think about Jaden and Willow Smith. These are the two famous children that he has with Jada Pinkett Smith. But Smith has a son from a previous marriage, Trey Smith, born in 1992. Trey keeps a much lower profile than Smith’s other children, and this caused some friction early on.
As Cheat Sheet reports, Will’s first wife Sheree Zampino, whom he was married to from 1992–1995, claimed that he stopped spending much time with Trey, causing their son to feel “abandoned” and “betrayed.” Smith later agreed he was “failing miserably” as Trey’s father.
Fortunately, Smith eventually found a way to give enough attention to all of his children. And while he was once functionally estranged from Trey, they get along very well now.
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Jaden Smith sought emancipation over a box office bomb
After his hot career streak in the 1990s, Will Smith began making stranger and stranger box office decisions. This arguably culminated with the 2015 box office bomb After Earth, which Smith starred in with his then-15-year-old son Jaden. And according to Smith’s memoir Will, the backlash to this movie seriously affected his relationship with his son.
As People reports, Smith wrote that he and Jaden “never discussed it, but I know he felt betrayed. He felt misled, and he lost his trust in my leadership.” Smith continued, writing, “At fifteen years old, when Jaden asked about being an emancipated minor, my heart shattered. He ultimately decided against it, but it sucks to feel like you’ve hurt your kids.”
Jaden and Will Smith seem to get along very well now. But it will likely always be a pain point that the two made a movie so bad that it nearly destroyed their relationship!
Willow Smith came out as polyamorous
Jada Pinkett Smith regularly offers shocking tidbits on her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk. But sometimes she has family members on the show, and they bring in some pretty shocking revelations of their own.
Daughter Willow Smith had already come out as bisexual back in 2019. But when she appeared on her mother’s show in April 2021, she raised eyebrows by coming out as polyamorous, declaring that she would like to be in a throuple.
“I love men and women equally,” Willow said. “So I would definitely want one man and one woman.” However, anything more than that is probably not for her. “I couldn’t see myself in a quadruple; I mean, anything could happen. Personally, male and female, that’s all I need.”
Like her parents before her, it looks like Willow Smith has found some unconventional ways to explore sex, sexuality, and romance on her own terms.
“With polyamory, I feel like the main foundation is the freedom to be able to create a relationship style that works for you and not just stepping into monogamy because that’s what everyone around you says is the right thing to do,” she explained. “So I was like, how can I structure the way that I approach relationships with that in mind? Also, doing research into polyamory, the main reasons why monogamous relationships – or why marriage – why divorces happen is infidelity.”
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