Jada Pinkett Smith says she opened her memoir by telling how she contemplated suicide so readers would know it was not going to be a “fluffy” read.
Jada Pinkett Smith says she opened her memoir by telling how she contemplated suicide so readers would know it was not going to be a ‘fluffy’ read
The 52-year-old actress, who recently revealed she has been secretly separated from her husband Will Smith, 55, for seven years, once wanted to kill herself in her 20s while trying to drive her car.
She told Parade when asked why her autobiography ‘Worthy’ opened with her thinking about a way to end her life: “Well, I think for me it’s just to let everybody know from the gate, a) you don’t know my story; b) we’re going to do a deep dive, this is not going to be fluffy; and c) that it’s going to be different than the Red Table (her talk show.)
“Because I’m sure a lot of people are like, ‘Well, what are we going to learn in your memoir that we don’t know?’
“It’s a lot because there’s so much context that one needs to have in order to go into stories a certain way. Without that context it’s just like, ‘What?!’”
Jada, who has two children with Will, added about the reason she chose to call her book ‘Worthy’: “Worthy because this is a journey to my self-worth, and I think that we are all struggling with wanting to feel worthy and finding what real worth means for ourselves individually.
“I use the word unlovable a lot, too. I was like, Oh, maybe I should speak more from a positive than a negative.
“I wanted to name the book ‘Unlovable’ but that wasn’t happening.
“I used the word worthy a lot, so I was like, ‘Ah, that’s a more positive approach.’”
Jada has also spoken about her suicidal thoughts in an interview with Steven Bartlett for his podcast in a chat to promote her book.
She said in her early twenties she experienced her first “personal earthquake” while driving in her car down the street.
Jada revealed she was fine one moment as she turned her car around to meet a friend, before all of a sudden her body shook and she was overcome with emotions.
The actress said she was in the car trying to drive, but couldn't, so pulled over feeling terrified to let it go.
She then remembered thinking: “I want to die. I want to die.”
Jada said she called her mum and said: “You gotta come here, I’m gonna kill myself.”
She added she was “terrified” to be alone and decided to call her friend who “held her down” until her mum arrived, and said: “I think my body was telling me, I think my mind was telling me, ‘Hey, we got some things we gotta pay attention to up here.’”
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