Why Willow Smith was angry at Will Smith for years

Willow Smith took years to forgive her dad, Will Smith. Photo / Facebook

Willow Smith has revealed that it took her years to forgive her dad, Will Smith, for how he handled her blossoming music career.

Willow released her debut single Whip My Hair just days before her 10th birthday in 2010 and performed the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest and even The Oprah Winfrey Show.

But her burgeoning fame took its toll on Willow and she blamed both of her parents, she said on Facebook's Red Table Talk show.

"I definitely had to forgive you and Daddy for that whole Whip My Hair thing," Willow, 18, said to her mum, Jada Pinkett Smith, on the show. "It was mostly Daddy because he was so, like, harsh at certain times.

"It was a couple of years, honestly. Trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was being listened to or like no one cared how I felt during that time.

"And I had to forgive myself because I felt guilty because I was like, 'Everyone is trying to make me better, trying to make my dream.' But I didn't really understand what my dream entailed," she said.

Willow Smith was angry at her dad, Will, for years. Photo / Instagram

This isn't the first time Willow's spoken about the tumultuous period in her life.

In a previous episode of Red Table Talk, she said she self-harmed as she struggled to deal with her self-identity.

"It was after that whole Whip My Hair thing and I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of just in this grey area of, 'Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?'" Willow said.

"After the tour and the promotion and all of that, they wanted me to finish my album. And I was like, I'm not gonna do that. And after all of that kinda settled down and it was like a kind of lull, I was just listening to a lot of dark music.

"It was just so crazy and I was plunged into this black hole, and I was cutting myself," she said.

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