Will Smith admits his family was not happy after finding fame
The Hollywood actor Will Smith has come out to express that “nobody in my family was happy” during their first years of fame and success.
Best known for his time on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran from 1990 to 1996, Smith would later go on to achieve global fame, appearing in the sci-fi favourite Men in Black before receiving an Oscar nomination for his role in Michael Mann’s Ali. He would eventually win his Academy Award in 2022, an achievement marred with controversy after he slapped presenter Chris Rock live on stage.
Despite his own success, Smith admits that he achieved his dream when his children saw triumph in the industry.
“2010 was like the greatest year as an artist, as a parent,” Smith stated on the Peacock TV show Hart To Heart, “Karate Kid came out in June, ‘Whip My Hair’ came out in October,” making reference to Jaden Smith’s debut film and Willow Smith’s first major hit single.
Continuing, he adds: “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 talked 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”.
Despite the success, Smith admitted that “nobody in my family was happy,” expressing, “No one wanted to be in a platoon. Willow was the first one to begin the mutiny and it was my first realisation 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”.
It was soon after this that Smith realised “material circumstances do not equal happiness and, in a lot of cases, they can be the reason you’re not happy”.
Take a look at the clip from Hart To Heart below.
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