Jada and Will Smith had marital challenges similar to T.I. and Tiny Harris
Pinkett Smith said she related to putting her dreams aside to support her husband's career, "We had to work through it"
During a Red Table Talk discussion with T.I. and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith spoke on her own marriage challenges with Will Smith.
During a Red Table Talk discussion with T.I. and his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith spoke on her own marriage challenges with Will Smith.
On the Red Table Talk, Tiny, 44, told Jada that she lost herself in her marriage to T.I, 39.
“When a man completely takes control, takes care of you, you don’t have a lot of say because you are dependent on this man,” Tiny said on the show. “So for a long time, because you didn’t want me to work, I pretty much gave up.”
READ MORE: Jada Pinkett Smith says Willow has had to check Will Smith for misinformed comments
It was then that Jada, 48, divulged that she and Will had faced “the exact same thing” and “had to work through” it.
“She felt like she lost herself in supporting Will and his dreams and his career, and the idea that he had of what their relationship was gonna be,” Adrienne Banfield-Jones, Jada’s mother and co-host of the show, explained.
Jada said about women: “We do relinquish a lot of our power to our men that we’ve given our lives to. And at first, I gave it all over. And then I realized, ‘Oh this is not working.’ And you get just a little disappointed because you feel like, ‘I gave it all to you and you took it and you misused it — you stopped listening to me.’”
But it’s our power to reclaim, she added.
“Then as you start coming into the understanding of yourself and your own power, you go ‘Oh man, Jada, that was your choice, though,'” Jada said on the show.
READ MORE: How Jada Pinkett Smith schooled an ‘incredibly apologetic’ T.I. during a candid ‘Red Table Talk’
As it relates to T.I., whose birth name is Clifford Harris, Jada told Tiny: “He did the best he could. Honor the fact that he wanted to, honor the fact that he tried. It takes a minute to get there, though.”
Wise words for the ladies and gents.
