Jada Pinkett Smith discusses the ‘terrified little girl underneath’ her ‘strong’ exterior

Jada Pinkett Smith revealed how dealing ‘with a lot of stressful adult things at a young age’ made her believe showing emotion was a sign of weakness.

During a preview of this week’s Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, the 50-year-old actress explained how being raised to just ‘buck up’ and get over her problems made her struggle to ‘to deal with emotions that were coming with’ all the pressures going on in her life.    

‘So those women you see that you think are so strong, there’s this terrified little girl underneath. And that’s me,’ the Girls Trip star confessed as she struggled to hold back tears while looking at her daughter Willow, 21. 

The Memories hitmaker appeared moved as she listened to her mom’s raw revelation, before replying: ‘This is why we do the work.’ 

The episode, titled How Destructive Mothers Damage Their Daughters: Could This Be You?, will also include Kelly McDaniel and Pinkett Smith’s mom Adrienne Banfield-Norris at the table. 

Last month, the mother daughter duo opened up about their respective battles with anxieties while speaking with Kim Basinger, 68, and Ireland Baldwin, 26.

Pinkett Smith revealed that it took Willow’s struggles with anxiety to realize that she suffered from that as well when she was growing up.

‘It took me a long time to understand Willow. I mean, just her anxiety. I had a really difficult time relating, because, two things — her lifestyle and how she was brought up very different than mine — I don’t know what it’s like to be a child under hot lights,’ Jada began.

‘And then just, really not knowing how to comfort her, not knowing what help she needed, not understanding the behavior,’ she added.

She added that, when she was a child, she used to, ‘chew my fingernails down to the cuticles. But they didn’t say that that was anxiety. I was a nail biter, that’s it.’

The actress slowly started to realize from her daughter’s behavior that she was suffering from anxiety while growing up as well.

‘One thing I would say in having to deal with, and learn about her anxiety, I’ve had to look at some of my own behaviors and the behaviors of my mother, and go, well of course I probably have some anxiety in regards to how I grew up,’ Jada admitted.

‘It was very difficult, even to this day, in just being there for her in the way that she needs,’ she added.

Willow recalled that her own anxiety seemed to ‘trigger’ her own mother, which Jada agreed with.

‘You used to just be like, “No. I can’t look at this,”‘ Willow said, adding she would be, ‘on the floor, tears, shaking, confused.’

Jada’s own mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, even thinks she suffered from anxiety as well, though it was not something that was talked about at the time.

‘I think in our world, I almost saw it as a weakness. We just couldn’t afford to be anxious,’ Banfield-Norris said during the episode.

‘I escaped through my drug abuse. Which I think numbed me to whatever was going on with you. I just didn’t want to face it, deal with anything in my life,’ she added.

The episode also featured Ireland opening up about being ‘ashamed’ about her substance abuse and eating disorders while her mother Basinger said she suffered from agoraphobia and ‘wouldn’t leave the house,’ to the point where she even had to, ‘relearn to drive.’