Will Smith’s first wife, Sheree Zampino, was invited to be a special guest host for Wednesday’s Red Table Talk about “toxic forgiveness.”
“We have developed a really nice sisterhood. But it hasn’t been easy,” Jada continued. “Trying to have a blended family and not really have a blueprint for that, we really had to figure it out along the way. For me, it really was about maturity [and] not understanding the marital dynamic.”
Jada said the “biggest misconception” she had when the divorce papers were signed was that “Ree” would be out of the picture. But, “Oh, guess what, it ain’t ever done” when there is a child in the picture. “This woman is a part of this family. [I was] not only taking on Trey, but Sheree is coming along too.” Looking back, I definitely would have taken a beat as far as putting myself in the dynamic of you guys [and] let you two flesh out whatever you need to figure out. I didn’t understand it.”
Jada said she imagined it “definitely took some forgiveness” on Sheree’s part “because I can remember some times that I really crossed the line.”
On one occasion, Jada confronted Sheree after being alerted to Trey’s misbehavior during a play date.
“‘Go get his daddy, please. Why are you talking about what happens at my house over here?'” Sheree recalled.
At the time, Sheree said Jada wasn’t a mother to Jaden or Willow yet, so she didn’t understand the dynamic.
“It was out of line, but you didn’t mean any harm. You were like, ‘Listen; we gotta get [Trey] right.'”
In another instance, Jada said she recalled when she felt uncomfortable with Sheree walking into her and Will’s bedroom.
“I couldn’t say nothing,” Jada said. It was as if Sheree was saying, “‘You need to know who queen bee is around here, okay?'”
Jada said the “intertwining … got messy” because “we were both really fiery.”
However, Sheree gave Jada some positive feedback, claiming that she exceeded her expectations, “Coming into this, doing the blended thing, my only requirement was that you treated my son well. You did that. Your heart was always right toward him, wanting the best for him.”
Later in the interview, Jada spoke about their ability to “have difficult conversations” and “own up” to their mistakes. At custody exchanges, if there were a topic they were unable to discuss in person, they would pass a journal back and forth.
“My philosophy always was: How can I love Trey and not love the most important person in his life — [who] is his mother. You can’t, and I knew that,” said Jada, who added the situation made her “learn it wasn’t always about me” and made her “reach for a [higher] level of emotional maturity.”
Sheree said she’s “committed to loving” Jada, “You’re family to me.” She then thanked her for her “patience” and giving her the “grace to evolve… Cause if somebody walked into my master bedroom…”
During the conversation, Sheree was asked if she was ever resentful that Jada got a more evolved version of Will after he worked through the hurt of divorce.
“What I think is when our union ends, he should be better cause of me,” Sheree replied. “So it might hurt to see [someone] with the better version, but he shouldn’t be worse … Now, in this stage of life, I think I left too soon,” as she and Will were both young and married just three years. “That was a part of me trying to protect myself. ‘Let me sever this now and go.’ If I was in a different time, I would never leave that soon. You’d work at it.” Though she added of Kramer’s situation, “Cheating is a whole other thing … I don’t have the grace for a liar.”
Sheree also said she and Will “are better as co-parents than we were as husband and wife. We came together to have Trey, it took the two of us to make him, but then we shifted.”
Jada chimed in, Will and Sheree “really enjoy each other.”
After being asked if Will and Sheree’s relationship gets under her skin, she said, “Never. They take trips. I’m not there. They do their thing…”
“Not together romantically, but like if he’s going on a book tour and his mom is going and his sister,” Sheree tags along as well, Jada said. “It’s fun for me to watch them enjoy them. It takes time, though.”
Jada added, “We’re not having trouble, everyone. Let’s just make that very clear cause you know that will be the next rumor.”
See the full episode above. Jada and Sheree talk about the “trips” just after the 21:00 min mark.
