Willow Smith used to self harm

5 June 2018

Willow Smith used to self harm.

Willow Smith

The 17-year-old star - the daughter of Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith - has revealed she turned to cutting her wrists just after she dropped her single 'Whip My Hair' in 2010 because she was really struggling with the pressures of fame.

Speaking on 'Red Table Talk', the teenager recalled: "I would have to say I honestly feel like I lost my sanity at one point. 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 gray area of 'Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?'

"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.' After all of that kind of settled down, and it was, like, a lull, I was listening to a lot of dark music and it was just so crazy, and I was just plunged into this black hole and I was, like, cutting myself and doing crazy things... I honestly felt like I was experiencing so much emotional pain but my physical circumstances weren't reflecting that."

Willow's mother Jada was shocked by her daughter's revelation and admitted she had "no idea" what was going on because she "never saw any signs of it."

But the young actress didn't even tell her older brothers, Jaden and Trey, what she was battling with and no one has realised because she's only got a "little" scar.

She explained: "I mean, you can't even see it. There's still a little something there. Totally lost my sanity for a moment there. I never talk about it because it was such a short, weird point in my life, but you have to pull yourself out of it. One night I was like, this is actually psychotic, and after that I just stopped. It's been, like, five years."