Jada Pinkett-Smith‘s mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, has touched on her history of drug addiction in the past, but on the latest installment of Red Table Talk, we got a rare glimpse into how her struggles really affected her A-list daughter.
During Wednesday’s episode entitled “Coping With Addiction During COVID-19” Banfield-Jones ran down how she overcame a 20-year battle with heroin addiction. She hoped her transparency could help others currently living with similar struggles during this unprecedented shelter-in-place period.
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At one point, Pinkett-Smith dropped a bombshell and reveals that she learned about the severity of her mother’s fight with drug abuse along with everyone else while watching in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“My mother was just revealing the many times she had overdosed which I didn’t know. I didn’t have knowledge of that,” explained the 48-year-old actress, adding. “She’s in her 30th year of sobriety and she has so much information to offer to those who are struggling right now.”
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She went on to praise her mother’s transparency noting that Banfield-Jones wasn’t always as willing to share her complicated past with people. But Pinkett-Smith – who has come clean about her own alcohol addiction – encouraged her mother to use her experiences as a testimony to others.
“I always told her, ‘This is so helpful to people [for you] to talk about what you’ve been through and how you’ve gotten on the other side.”
“I haven’t had a drink in a long time but those psychological patterns that once would make me drink or make me look for solace outside myself are creeping back in,” she confessed during the program. “These times are so uncertain…For me, I just had to deepen some of my spiritual practices and deepen my faith.”
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Watch the episode below.