Why Will Smith Regrets Pushing Daughter Willow Smith Into Show Business as a Kid

The Smiths may be a family of superstars, but the life in the public eye hasn't always been easy.

As as Will Smith recently revealed, that was especially true for his and Jada Pinkett Smith's kids Jaden Smith and Willow Smith as they started their respective acting and singing careers at such a young age.

"2010 was like the greatest year as an artist, as a parent," the Oscar winner told Kevin Hart on the July 3 episode of Hart to Heart while recounting the start of his kids' careers. "Karate Kid came out in June, 'Whip My Hair' came out in October. I'm building this dream of a family I've had in my mind. 'I'm going to do it better than my father did it.' We've talking about it, my father was abusive. I told myself I would never have that kind of energy with my family and I had a dream, an idea of a family I was building. Pretty much 2010 to 2012 I had achieved everything I had ever dreamed."

However, pushing their then 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter to follow in their parents' Hollywood footsteps backfired at first.

"Nobody in my family was happy," Will admitted. "No one wanted to be in a platoon. Willow was the first one to begin the mutiny and it was my first realization that success and money don't mean happiness. Up until that point, I really believed that you could succeed your way—to a house and a family—and you could win your way to happiness."

Jaden and Willow's displeasure made the Men in Black star realize something very important: "Material circumstances do not equal happiness and, in a lot of cases, they can be the reason you're not happy."

"You can have so much stuff that it makes you miserable," Will continued. "That was my first pull-back and I was like, 'OK, what am I missing?'"

The 54-year-old—who is also dad to son Trey, 30, with ex Sheree Zampino—said it was a turning point that inspired him to start reading books and studying psychology. Even though he was happy with all the success, Will noted, "I was driving the people around me in a way that I was leaving scorched earth around me."

Through the experience, Will said he "discovered feelings" he had previously ignored in the pursuit of success. "I never gave a f--k about feelings, you can't care about feelings," he stated. "How are you going to win if you're worried about how you feel?"

But as he put it: "That doesn't work at home."

Willow, now 22, previously admitted having resentment towards her dad for encouraging her to break onto the Hollywood scene so early.

"I definitely had to forgive you and daddy for that whole ‘Whip My Hair' thing," she told Jada on a 2018 episode of Red Table Talk. "It was mostly daddy because he was so harsh at certain times. It was a couple of years, honestly. Trying to regain trust for not feeling like I was being listened to or like no one cared how I felt."

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