Blended families are difficult under the best circumstances. I imagine that having the press track your every interaction makes things even harder.
According to People, on Wednesday’s episode of Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith welcomed Will Smith’s ex-wife Sheree Zampino as a guest host to discuss the show’s theme of “toxic forgiveness.” Alongside Jada’s mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris, the Set It Off actress explained how the two women navigated the early days of their relationship.
Will and Sheree were married for three years, then divorced in 1995. He married Jada two years later, a move the Gotham actress admitted was “too soon.”
“Trying to have a blended family and not really having a blueprint of that. We really had to figure it out along the way,” Pinkett Smith said. “For me, it was really about maturity. Just not understanding the marital dynamic, like, ‘OK, the divorce papers are sent, and people are over it, and this is done.’”
“Oh, guess what—it ain’t ever done,” Jada added. “So that was my biggest misconception, in that this woman is a part of this family. It’s like not only taking on Trey [Will and Sheree’s son], but Sheree was coming along too as part of the package.”
While it took time for the women to get on the same page, they are now close friends, with Jada saying, “We have developed a really nice sisterhood, but it hasn’t been easy along the way.”
They discussed the mistakes they made, laughing about how young and immature they were. Jada admitted she was overeager in her co-parenting duties and Sheree had to learn to respect the new couple’s boundaries.
“I’m imagining it definitely took some forgiveness on your part because I can remember some times that I really crossed the line,” Pinkett Smith told Zampino.
At one point, Will had to step in to clear up an argument, with Jada revealing he told her, “That is Trey’s mother and that’s just not your place.”
Sheree noted that after the disagreement, the women seriously worked on their relationship. “You would always say Ree, I apologize,” Zampino said. “You always owned it. Thank you for that.”
Can we talk about how the Smith family insists on telling us everything happening in their lives every second of the day? I know this is weird coming from someone writing a story about them, but honestly, I just don’t need to know the details of every family interaction they have. For my own piece of mind, please let some of these stories stay private. That being said, in case you can’t get enough of the Smith family’s private business, new episodes of Red Table Talk air every Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT on Facebook Watch.