Jada Pinkett Smith: I fear being hurt

15 December 2020

Jada Pinkett Smith has a “fear of being hurt”.

Jada Pinkett Smith

The ‘Girls Trip’ star - who is married to Will Smith - opened up about feeling “devastating heartbreak” in her life during an episode of ‘Red Table Talk’ on Tuesday (15.12.20), and said her past experiences caused her to stop showing “tenderness” as easily as she used to, because she was afraid of being hurt.

She said: “You know, I have had plenty of heartbreak in my life, devastating heartbreak. But what I am still trying to learn is allowing for that tenderness, versus [going into fight mode].

“I think that has a lot to do with the fear of being hurt. You don’t want to feel rejected, you don’t want to feel unloved. Being programmed, and believing, ‘Girl, don’t let those tears come, because you will fall apart and you might not be able to put yourself back together again.”

Jada didn’t go into detail about the heartbreak she has felt, but spoke to her and Will’s personal relationship counsellor, Michaela Boehm, on the episode, as well as her usual co-hosts, her daughter Willow Smith and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris.

And during their chat, Adrienne also spoke about heartbreak that she’s felt in her life, including the tragic passing of her mother-in-law earlier this year.

She explained: “This year has really been the passing of my mother-in-law. It was [due to] COVID. It was very painful. And then not being able to gather and celebrate her life the way we ordinarily would.”

“I have had [a lot of romantic heartbreak in my life]. This one particular failure in one of my marriages that I really built up in my head that this was my one true love and I’ll never love like this again. It wasn’t a divorce that I wanted but at the end of the day when you really, really look at the relationship honestly it’s like, ‘This one’s going nowhere but to divorce.’ I really feel like you have to kind of take some time and be honest with yourself.”

Whilst Willow, who is rumoured to be romancing Tyler Cole, said she is “so grateful” to her “partner” for respecting the boundaries she’s set up in their romance to protect herself.

She said: “I have had some personal decisions I needed to make this year that were really hard. I just had to just learn how to set some boundaries in my romantic relationship, and I am so grateful that my partner was just open to what I had to say. And when you truly love someone, no matter what you are gonna want what’s best for them.

"I felt like I was almost making the situation bigger than it needed to be because once I stepped up to the plate and made the decision I needed to make, it was almost as if all of the stress and heartbreak I was feeling beforehand was [gone].”