“I’m not said a lot. I think because I drink so much coffee, I get dehydrated, and it makes my eye water,” said Will Smith, while dabbing his eyes at the start of a video posted to his YouTube channel. In the Oct. 5 video, Will, 52, and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, talked about the “Crying Will Smith” memes that came out of their Red Table Talk episode, the one where Jada, 49, admitted she had a romantic “entanglement” with August Alsina. “People think I’m crying all the time,” said Will, to which Jada, 49, said, “He’s not. Such a shame. It’s such a shame. If they only knew. He doesn’t cry.”
“He wasn’t crying,” said Jada of that one moment from July 10 RTT that has replaced “Crying Michael Jordan” as the new sad meme. “It was midnight,” insisted the Bad Boys actor. “We were trying to rush to the airport in the morning, and I was tired.” Jada said she regrets not sticking “to my first gut and reshoot the whole thing.” Will added that he said they should reshoot it, but since they didn’t, it “played out. Everybody was like ‘poor Will.’”
A few memes flashed up on the screen, some done in support of Will. Jada and Will held this memorable Red Table Talk because August, 28, claimed he had a loving relationship with Jada and Will had given his “blessing.” While Will and Jada’s marriage has been subject to rumors for years – everything from them having an open relationship to them being “swingers” – August’s claims were too much to shrug off, apparently. After the RTT episode aired, August said he still had “deep respect” for the air. “There’s a lot of love there. Sometimes the truth is complicated and difficult. But [my relationship with them isn’t] broken at all.”
Though some poked fun at Will and Jada for their “entanglement,” some – like daughter Willow Smith – applauded the courage it took to share these intimate details. “I’m so proud of you, to be able to see you and Dad do that, for me, that was like, ‘okay, that was the real deal,’” the 19-year-old singer said during the Sept. 28 episode of Red Table Talk.
Willow would join her parents and brothers – Trey Smith and Jaden Smith – to accept the Bring Change To Mind’s 2020 Legacy of Laughter Award. Bring Change To Mind, a nonprofit founded by Glen Close, works to end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. This year, the foundation decided to present the award to the entire Smith family for their “longstanding, and charitable contributions to the world.” Zachary Williams, the son of the late Robin Williams and Bring Change To Mind board member, presented the Smith family with the award, thanking them for holding “groundbreaking, open discussions about important topics like family, career, and mental health in a world that often expects silence from its most visible citizens.”
