Jada Pinkett Smith Talks Having ‘Compassion’ for Abusive Father

Jada Pinkett Smith talks her abusive father. (Credit: Red Table Talk/Facebook)

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about the complicated relationship she had with her father, Robsol Pinkett Jr., who died in 2010.

During Monday’s episode of Pinkett Smith’s Facebook series, Red Table Talk, she revealed that Robsol was physically abusive toward her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones.

“I knew that my mother and my father had a very violent relationship early on,” the actress recalled. “She has a couple scars on her body that, as a child, I was just curious. I was like, ‘Oh, Mommy, what’s that? What’s that?'”

Pinkett Smith also noted that her 18-year-old daughter, Willow Smith — who was present during the episode — didn’t know about her grandfather’s past.

“This will be the first time that Willow’s actually heard these stories about her grandfather who she knew,” she added.

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At one point in the discussion, Banfield-Jones discussed a scar she got from an altercation with Robsol.

She shared: “Not to make this like an excuse … but he was typically in an altered state when he was abusive like that. He was typically drunk. I think women stay because they think that they’re in love. That’s what it was for me. I thought that it was love.”

But Banfield-Jones finally said she’d had enough after a particularly violent fight with her husband.

“He was pissed off about something. I don’t even remember what the argument was about,” she explained. “He started hitting me, and he was in a rage. I was backing out of Daddy’s den into the master bedroom, and you were still in the den, and I said, ‘Oh my God, we left Jada.’ I knew that he wasn’t going to hurt you.”

She added: “He left the room to go get you, and I went through the bedroom out the master bath and down the steps and ran across the street to the neighbor … for them to call and get me some help. That was it. Mommy was like, ‘That’s enough of that. We’re done.’”

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Pinkett Smith then chimed in, admitting that time has softened her view of Robsol.

“Once he did get sober, he was really a gentle soul,” she explained. “Now that I’m older, I have so much more compassion in knowing what he had gone through.”

Willow added: “I remember having some experiences with him that are very good.”

Watch the full episode below.