Jada Pinkett Smith has announced the upcoming release of her new memoir, Worthy, which will explore her ‘controversial Hollywood life’ – following years of scandal within her personal life.
The actress, 51, whose 26 year marriage to Will Smith was rocked in 2020 when her four-year affair with toyboy August Alsina, 30, was revealed, expressed her desire to ‘take back her own narrative’ as she showed off the memoir’s cover on Instagram this week.
She wrote: ‘On October 17th, I invite you into a journey that, understandably, many think they already know.
‘The fact that I have, in the last four years contributed to the creation and perpetuation of falsehoods about myself, in which other untrue narratives were birthed, has surely aided in the misunderstandings that surround me.
‘This fall, with deep humility and respect, I will take back my narrative. My memoir starts at the beginning, offering an unvarnished and revealing account from my challenging upbringing in Baltimore into a controversial life in Hollywood.
Must read: Jada Pinkett Smith has announced the upcoming release of her new memoir, Worthy, which will explore her ‘controversial Hollywood life’ – following years of scandal within her personal life
‘It’s a harrowing ride of reclaiming my self-worth while unraveling unspoken truths.
‘My adventures of my youth, meaningful friendships, marriage, motherhood, self-betrayal and self reclamation are mere reflections of the adventures so many of us have taken in search of happiness.
‘My hope is that through the exploration of my own tumultuous situations to the rediscovery of deep love, that we are all reminded that no matter where we may be on our journey, we are all…Worthy.’
Pinkett Smith’s marriage to Oscar-winner Smith has come heavily under the spotlight in recent years – culminating in a shock moment when the pair both appeared on her show, Red Table Talk, to discuss her affair and their open relationship in 2020.
Pinkett Smith famously referred to the years-long affair with R&B singer Alsina, 29, as an ‘entanglement’.
It’s also been reported that August was only 23 when he first met Jada.
In 2021, Will confirmed that he and Jada have an open relationship, admitting that she has ‘never believed in a conventional marriage’ while promoting his own memoir.
On Red Table Talk she began explaining the couple met August through their son Jaden, 24, and recalled the singer, who would have been 23 at the time, was ‘really sick’ (as he battled a genetic liver disease.)
Coming soon: The actress, 51, whose 26 year marriage to Will Smith was rocked in 2020 when her four-year affair with toyboy August Alsina, 30, was revealed, expressed her desire to ‘take back her own narrative’ as she showed off the memoir’s cover on Instagram this week
Face-to-face in 2020: The actress sat down with her husband for an intimate conversation on her Facebook show, Red Table Talk , where she revealed how the relationship took place
Affair: Pinkett Smith famously referred to the years-long affair with R&B singer Alsina, 29, as an ‘entanglement’ (Pictured above in 2017)
Jada said: ‘And it all started with him just needing some help, me wanting to help his health, his mental state.
‘The outpouring for him from our family was initially about his health,’ she said. ‘We found all those different resources to help pull him through and from there you and I were going through a very difficult time.’
After Jada’s confession, Will admitted: ‘I was done with you,’ while Jada added that they decided to separate for a ‘period of time’.
‘And then what did you do, Jada?’ Will asked, urging his wife to keep talking.
‘As time went on, I got into a different type of entanglement with August,’ Jada explained.
The mother-of-two went on to respond to August’s claim that Will gave her ‘permission’ to have an affair.
When Will pushed Jada to clarify what she meant by ‘entanglement’ she responded, ‘It was a relationship, absolutely.’
Jada continued: ‘I was in a lot of pain, and I was very broken. In the process of that relationship I definitely realized that you can’t find happiness outside yourself.’
She denied August’s claim that Will had given his blessing over the affair and claimed they were separated at the time.
The slap: Smith stormed the stage at the 94th Academy Awards and assaulted comedian Chris Rock who had just made fun of his wife Jada in 2022
The affair sent shockwaves through the world with many turning to Will to see how the movie star would react.
Curiously, Jada had initially denied August’s claims they were an item, until she eventually confessed saying ‘there’s some healing that needs to happen… so I’m bringing myself to the Red Table.’
The Girls Trip actress used a similar ‘healing’ line when she broke her silence regarding Will slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022.
Smith smacked the comedian in the face after he made a joke about his wife’s hair loss. Pinkett Smith has been open about her struggle with alopecia, a disease which often causes bald spots.
Despite laughing about the incident, and going on to party the night away at the Vanity Fair Oscars party, Jada posted the following day: ‘This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.’
Meanwhile, it has been previously reported that Jada ‘wishes’ Will ‘didn’t get physical’ with Chris, but isn’t ‘angry with’ her husband.
Speaking to Us Weekly, a unnamed insider said: ‘It was in the heat of the moment and it was him overreacting.
‘He knows that, she knows that. They’re in agreement that he overreacted.’
They also alleged that Pinkett Smith is ‘not a wallflower’, nor ‘one of these women that needs protecting’.
‘He didn’t need to do what he did,’ they added.
The US Weekly source also said that that the couple ‘are very much protected in their own lives and do the absolute best they can to protect their loved ones’.
Recently, Pinkett Smith came under further scrutiny when her son Jaden revealed his mother introduced their whole family to psychedelic drugs.
Wow: Recently, Pinkett Smith came under further scrutiny when her son Jaden revealed his mother introduced their whole family to psychedelic drugs (Smith is seen with daughter Willow, 22, Jaden and Will’s son Trey, 30, in 2022)
While speaking at the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver this week, the actor raved about how using psychedelics improved his relationship with loved ones and increased his empathy for others.
‘I think it was my mom, actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family,’ he revealed. ‘It was just her for a really, really long time and then eventually it just trickled and evolved and everybody found it in their own ways.’
Jaden went on to claim that psychedelics had a ‘profound’ impact on his relationship with his sister Willow Smith, 22, and half-brother Trey Smith, 30, who his father Will shares with ex-wife, Sheree Zampino.
‘Siblings can argue so much and fight so much, and lord knows me and my siblings have done so much of that in the past,’ the Entergalactic star said, according to USA Today.
He continued: ‘But the level of love and empathy that I can feel for them inside of the (psychedelic) experiences and outside of the experiences has been something that’s profound and beautiful.’
Jaden explained that psychedelics helps him and his relatives ‘open up’ their minds and ‘get out of the old ways of thinking that got us into lots of these arguments and open it up so that it just releases and makes room for you to work it out.’
Jaden did not specify what kind of psychedelics that his family uses, but previously discussed using magic mushrooms last year.
‘I believe that mushrooms are going to help us expand consciousness. The collection is not just clothes to sell,’ he told Mr Porter Journal in 2022.
He added: ‘It’s loaded with spiritual experiences and mystical states. We’re just making clothes that can go along with people’s journeys.’
In 2019, Jada revealed she revealed she used the drug ecstasy amid a battle with depression.
‘In my depression, using ecstasy, drinking a whole lot, you know, and smoking a bunch of weed and trying to just find some peace in my mind. It’s like, I knew [what] I was doing – I was doing ecstasy because I wanted to party,’ she said during an episode of Red Table Talk.
The Gotham actress said that other substances were in the mix during the turbulent time in her life.
‘I was doing ecstasy, weed and a bottle of Courvoisier because I wanted to get lit,’ said Jada. ‘I wasn’t making the connection, and I knew … I knew I was on the course of addiction. I was very clear about it.’
Jada said that that she also coped with a nervous breakdown and thoughts of suicide in the early days of her career.
‘I had gotten to LA and gotten a certain amount of success and realized that that wasn’t the answer – it wasn’t what was going to make everything okay,’ she said, adding that the success ‘actually made [things] worse.
Her best known role to date is as human rebel Niobe in the films The Matrix Reloaded (2003-pictured) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), sequels to 1999’s The Matrix
‘I was extremely suicidal, I had a complete emotional collapse.’
Jada said at that the time she felt ‘completely and utterly out of control,’ adding, ‘I don’t even think at that particular time I understood what I was going through.
‘I was severely depressed, severely. And that was something that I battled with for years. Waking up in the morning was like the worst part of the day,’ the star recalled.
Two years ago, on her Facebook Watch series, Jada opened up about being a hard drinker and drinking wine ‘like Kool-Aid.’
‘I was a brown liquor drinker – rum – and also vodka. I was a hard liquor drinker. Like, I could drink almost anybody under the table,’ said the Girls Trip actress said.
Pinkett Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to parents Adrienne Banfield-Norris, a nurse, and Robsol Pinkett Jr., who ran a construction company.
Pinkett attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where she met and became close friends with her classmate, rapper Tupac Shakur. Pinkett was a drug dealer at the time and her mom had been a heroin addict.
After graduation, she spent a year at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
She began her acting career in 1990 with an appearance in True Colors, with guests roles following in Doogie Howser, M.D. (1991), 21 Jump Street (1991), and Bill Cosby’s NBC television sitcom A Different World in 1991.
Film roles followed in A Low Down Dirty Shame in 1994 and 1995’s Demon Knight.
Her big screen breakthrough came in 1996’s The Nutty Professor alongside Eddie Murphy. She also had a lead role in Set It Off (1996), a crime drama about four women who rob banks to escape from poverty, opposite Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise.
In 1997, Pinkett had a cameo role in Scream 2 as a college student who is brutally murdered in front of hundreds of filmgoers.
Her best known role to date is as human rebel Niobe in the films The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), sequels to 1999’s The Matrix.
She starred in 2004’s Collateral alongside Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise.
She met Smith in 1994 on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when she unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of his character’s girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes
Will and Jada later began dating after he separated from Sheree Fletcher, who is the mother of his son Trey.
