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Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have been increasingly open about their personal lives over the last several years, and now the Hollywood power couple is revealing they were once compelled to stage an intervention for their son Jaden after his vegan lifestyle led to alarming weight loss.
According to CNN, mom Jada made the admission during the Season 2 premiere of her Facebook Watch series, “Red Table Talk.”
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“Will and I had a bit of an intervention with Jaden because he’s a vegan now, but we realized he wasn’t getting enough protein,” said the actress. “So he was wasting away. He just looked drained, he was just depleted. He wasn’t getting the nutrients.”
Will then shared how at one point just looking at his son’s depleted frame was enough to send him into a panic.
“He had the dark circles under his eyes, there was even a little grayness to his skin. And we got really nervous,” admitted Smith.
In addition to being a prolific philanthropist at just the tender age of 21, Jaden also has the added stress of juggling his music career and is currently on tour with longtime friend Tyler the Creator. Attempting to go vegan under those conditions proved precarious, and he has now opted to become a vegetarian instead for the last year.
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“I was just eating like two meals a day. And maybe one,” explains Jaden. “Maybe just that one big meal and then I’m like, ‘Oh, you know I didn’t get around to it.’
“I was not doing good,” he recalls of the time he became ill right before this year’s Coachella festival. “I wasn’t looking good, I wasn’t feeling good, I wasn’t sleeping.”
But it wasn’t until dizzy spells during a trip to Australia landed him in the hospital that he was “scared” into admitting he might have a problem.
During the season premiere, Jaden’s sister Willow, older brother Trey, and grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Norris were also on hand for the candid discussion about healthy eating habits and dieting.
“We all have issues with food in this family,” Jada added, conceding that years of living in the public eye had lead all of them to prioritize appearance over health.