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Will Smith Says He's Done Some of His 'Best Parenting' This Past Year
Smith, who shares Willow, 22, and Jaden, 24, with wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Trey, 30, from a previous relationship, says that he is doing the best parenting today.
“This has been probably the greatest period of my fatherhood. I was an OK father for my first son. I got a little bit better with Jaden. I got my sea legs with Willow and probably the last couple of years of my life I had sufficiently suffered enough to have real wisdom,” he tells hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson about his relationship with his children.
“This last year with my kids has been the best parenting,” he adds. “If I had to say something to guide someone about it is, first and foremost, everybody sucks at the beginning. It’s OK to not be good at it. It’s OK to make mistakes and the best thing you can do for your kids is learn and grow yourself.”
Smith said that he began to become aware of the disconnect he was having with his now-adult children and decided that it was time to shift his focus.
“Probably about two years ago, I guess I noticed a little bit of a lack in my ability to connect and love on a deep level,” he says. “I started noticing it with Willow … and I noticed that I wasn’t as proficient at connecting and loving somebody. I could provide. I’ll lay it out. But in those moments when my kids were reaching for me, I was failing at the depth that they were seeking. And I decided, like, what did that mean? I felt that I had to deeply and truly examine my life.”
The Oscar-winning actor revealed that working through his relationship with his children allowed him to examine his own father’s role in his life.
“I had to examine my motives. I wanted to be the biggest movie star in the world. Why? And when I decided to write my book, I decided to dig into my life’s experiences,” he says about his memoir. “One of the major things that I addressed with myself was my father had been abusive in my house and I never talked about it. When I wrote the book, I told myself I was going to give myself the freedom to write it and purge. I went in and I did it and it was the first time my mother and I had ever talked about it. I was 50 years old before I ever talked to my mother about the fact that my father had beat her up.”
During the interview, Smith also opened up about another member of his family who had a direct impact on his actions. When speaking about the 2022 Oscars, where he slapped Chris Rock following the comedian’s joke about Pinkett Smith, the King Richard star shared how his nephew reacted to seeing the moment.
“That was a horrific night for me,” he recalls. “I get home and my nephew, nine years old, his name’s Dom. He is the sweetest kid in the world. Him and my sister live with me. And we got these bean bags in the kitchen. I’m sitting in the kitchen and he’s sitting between my legs. And he’s holding the Oscar. And he goes, ‘Why you hit that man, Uncle Will?’ And I was like, ‘Ughhh’… You can’t explain it to him.”
Smith has since apologized to Rock on numerous occasions following the incident.
On Wednesday, Smith had the support of his family during the premiere of Emancipation.
ET spoke with Smith, who walked the carpet with his wife and three children. During the chat, the actor spoke about the film, which is the story about an escaped slave who makes a new life for himself after finding freedom.
“The recognition of the relationship between suffering and salvation, the realization that nobody gets out of bearing their cross,” he said. “It’s just been a really beautiful, beautiful transformation.”
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