Jada Pinkett Smith has laid her entire life bare ever since she released her memoir Worthy, candidly discussing her upbringing, career, and life with estranged husband Will Smith.
On the November 28th edition of The Drew Barrymore Show, the 52-year-old bestselling author and actress spoke with the TV host about her book and the implications it had on her life.
She openly spoke about her childhood and difficult early life, being raised by her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris, an absent father who battled addiction, and an unstable home.
Drew shared her own experience of growing up with a father, famous actor John Drew Barrymore, who was an addict, saying: "That wasn't the bond I expected to have with you."
She continued: "You have kids, and they're being brought up in a much more protected way. So are mine," referring to Jada's two children with Will, Jaden, 25, and Willow, 23.
Jada responded: "I've had to learn how to listen, because they are living a life that I don't know. I can relate more to the upbringing of their cousins than them necessarily, because I didn't grow up in a lifestyle like that. So I've had to learn."
Jada and Will have remained a united front after revealing that they had quietly separated in 2016, although have no intention of legally divorcing. The couple even spent Thanksgiving together with their children, including Will's son from his first marriage Trey, plus other loved ones.
In a recent conversation with Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast, the actress revealed what it was about her partner that created that romantic attraction in the first place, calling him "all sky."
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She stated: "I saw in him that he is all sky, happy. He's looking at the glass as half full and I'm looking at it half empty. Even to this day…he's just always looking for a laugh."
Jada continued, however, that there were more layers to him than she initially thought, adding: "But he was able to also do both, it just so happens that he leans more towards joy, joy, joy!
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"That was the part for me that was so beautiful. And he's also freaking smart, a go-getter, and he's a climber. He doesn't like to quit. That's what we have in common."
Fearne then questioned Jada about the factors that contributed to their separation, to which she replied: "The biggest problem was that we were in that power struggle of romanticism…what we believed that the other person needed to be in order to feel good."
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She added that it felt like they were approaching their lives and relationships with completely opposing perspectives, saying: "I was like 'Oh, connection, dude.' And he's like 'Man, I'm trying to be the biggest movie star in the world, we'll get to that.' I think that's a really universal idea.
"I just wanted to be his everything, I wanted him to be my everything, I wanted to be so absorbed. And that wasn't quite it either."
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