Jada Pinkett Smith says she was 'devastated' when son Jaden left home at 15
In the latest episode of Jada Pinkett Smith's 'Red Table Talk,' the 46-year-old mother recalled the heartbreaking day when her son Jaden Smith chose to move out of their family home at age of 15.
“One thing that I’ve learned is that every child need something different,” Jada said. “At 15 years old, Jaden needed this. And I remember this day specifically. It’s probably one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life. You (Jaden) got to a point where you told me straight up, you were like, ‘Mom, I have to leave here to live my life.’ I remember thinking to myself, as devastated as I was, I was like, ‘He’s right. The time is now. He’s 15. It’s time for him to leave the house.’”
Jaden had initially suggested legal emancipation but ended up not going through with the process. In 2013, Jaden, along with his famous father Will Smith, explained his decision on The Ellen DeGeneres show.
“See, here’s the thing. I’m not going anywhere. The thing that people don’t get is everything at this house is free,” Jaden, who was then 14, said.
“I can get anything and everything at this house, so I’m going to be there for 20, 30 years,” he joked. “[Will] says, as soon as I have a movie that’s bigger than one of his movies, I can get my own house.”
Jaden, who is 19-years-old now was present during the conversation with his mom, sister Willow Smith and grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Jones. Recalling that chapter in her life, Jada added that she felt comfortable with Jaden leaving the house because of his maturity level and because he was already managing his own life.
“Being in this lifestyle, this world is a bubble, and he wanted out. I understood that because I didn’t have the bubble. I knew what having my freedom outside the bubble meant. I knew the sooner I let him go, the faster he was going to come back,” Jada said.
Jaden Smith, raised by parents Jada and Will Smith, joined the conversation to say that he needed to get out of the Hollywood bubble.
“It just makes you appreciate being at home, being with your parents, spending quality time with your family,” he said about moving out. “You get out into the world and you just understand things.”
Jada and Will have raised Jaden and Willow Smith and their parenting style, which comes with a lot of freedom, has often been a subject of heated debate. In 2016, Will confessed that their hands-off parenting approach may have been a “mistake.”
“I think we may have gone too far,” he shared on BBC Radion 1Xtra.
However, Will had nothing but compliments to share about his son. Jaden Smith had shocked fans when he joined the Louis Vuitton womenswear campaign wearing a skirt.
“Jaden is 100 percent fearless, he will do anything,” Will said. “So, as a parent, it’s scary, it’s really terrifying. But he is completely willing to live and die by his own artistic decisions and he just doesn’t concern himself with what people think.”