Jada and Sheree face off on Red Table Talk. Photo / YouTube
Jada and Sheree face off on Red Table Talk. Photo / YouTube
The two might be friends now, but Jada Pinkett-Smith revealed it “hasn’t been easy” raising a blended family with Will Smith’s ex-wife Sheree Zampino.
Sitting down for a candid conversation on Pinkett-Smith’s show, Red Table Talk, the two discussed “toxic forgiveness” and confronted the ups and downs of their friendship.
Zampino said she and Jada have been learning how to befriend each other “since we were babies” – in reference to her three-year-long marriage to the King Richard actor before he married Pinkett-Smith in December 1997.
Confronting the moments of their past, Pinkett-Smith brought up the time Zampino once stormed into Pinkett-Smith and her husband’s bedroom.
Recalling the incident when Zampino “marched into the master bedroom” at her and Smith’s home because she “wanted to see what was going on, like how it was decorated and all that”, Pinkett-Smith said: “It was early on and I think you were just like … ‘I just need you to know who the queen bee is around here’.
“I was like, ‘Well, damn, she did pick the house out, I can’t say nothing’. We were both very fiery.”
RTT's special guest host @Sheree_Zampino - Trey's mother and Will’s former wife - and country music star @kramergirl join the table for a conversation about toxic forgiveness. Plus, renowned therapist @NedraTawwab reveals why it’s dangerous to be a toxic forgiver. Link in bio. pic.twitter.com/iRu6ZlZAuQ
Pinkett-Smith added about how they have had to “fake” their bond over the years: “We have developed a really nice sisterhood, but it hasn’t been easy along the way.
Zampino was married to Smith, 54, from 1992 to 1995, with the pair sharing son Trey, 29, before Pinkett-Smith started a romance with the actor shortly after their separation.
Admitting Smith had to step in during an awkward incident over Trey’s behaviour led to a spat, Pinkett-Smith said she “crossed the line” with Zampino.
“I can remember some times that I really crossed the line. There was one time Trey had a play date and he misbehaved.” Adding, “I was like, ‘Uh uh, we gotta sit down, we gotta talk about this, Trey can’t be behaving this way’.”
Zampino added: “Let me give you my version. I literally walked in the house just to drop him off and as soon as I walked in, Jada was like, ‘We gotta talk about his behaviour!’'
“I was like, ‘Go get his daddy please. Why are you talking about what happens at my house, over here?’ His behaviour was at my house’.”
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith. Photo / FilmMagic
Pinkett-Smith went on: “It was a lot of intertwining and it got really kind of messy”, while Zampino branded her behaviour “out of line”.
But Zampino admitted Pinkett-Smith didn’t “mean any harm”, adding: “My only requirement was that you treated my son well. You did that and your heart was always right toward him, wanting the best for him.”
Smith and his wife share son Jaden, 24, and daughter Willow, 21, and when Zampino was asked how she felt about Pinkett-Smith getting the “better version” of Will, she said: “What I think is, when our union ends, he should be better because of me. He should be better. So it might hurt to see you with the better version, but he shouldn’t be worse because he’s been with me.
“In this stage of life, I think I left too soon. That was a part of me trying to protect myself. If I was in a different time, I would never leave that soon, I’d work at it.”
