Entertainment Movies Jada Pinkett Smith's Most Candid Quotes The Red Table Talk host has shared enough life experience and wisdom to help you get through anything By Diane J. Cho Diane J. Cho Diane J. Cho was the Features Editor of PEOPLE Digital from 2019 to 2022. She worked at the brand for nearly four years covering news, features, human interest, evergreen, holiday gift guides and more. She launched the How I Parent and What It's Really Like to Be …. digital series and has interviewed several celebrities and influential leaders within the entertainment industry. Prior to joining PEOPLE, Diane worked at Bustle, VH1 and Complex. She received her bachelor's degree in Journalism from Rutgers University and her master's degree from Columbia Journalism School. People Editorial Guidelines Published on September 18, 2020 11:51 AM Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos 01 of 12 On Her Marriage to Husband Will Frazer Harrison/Getty "It's more of a life partnership… I don't own him. He doesn't own me. He has to be his own person first, and vice versa… Love is freedom." — to PEOPLE 02 of 12 On Being a Working Mom Astrid Stawiarz/Getty. "For every woman it's important that we recognize that we have the right to figure out what works for us personally. We don't have to do what everyone else is doing. If we are good, our family is going to be good." — on Red Table Talk 03 of 12 On the Lesson She Learned from Cheating on a Partner Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty "I had two relationships before Will that were kind of serious to me, where I got cheated on — which really broke my heart — and then I cheated on somebody that I really cared about. And I have to tell you, me cheating on someone was more devastating than me being cheated on. It actually taught me to forgive when I got cheated on because I understood and what I understood most was that it didn't have anything to do with me." — on Red Table Talk 04 of 12 On Happiness Jason Koerner/Getty "I really thought happiness had a lot to do with pleasure, and I realized that happiness is about peace." — on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 05 of 12 On Embracing Discomfort Getty Images "Sometimes our biggest treasures and our biggest lessons are in the zones of discomfort." — on Red Table Talk 06 of 12 On Being Unfiltered About Her Relationship with Will Stan Evans / Red Table Talk "What was really important about Will and I doing that [Red Table Talk] together — two things: First of all was really to kind of get rid of the idea that people in the public eye have perfect relationships. We were kind of sick of living up to that. We were real sick of it. And then second of all, really having myself and Will come and talk about our relationship — sometimes you see just women do it alone or you just see a guy do it. Us coming together and taking responsibility for both of our parts and also Will being the successful guy that he is and being willing to share what his pitfalls were in the relationship and in his family, you can't imagine how many other successful men called and said, 'Wow, my wife has been saying the same thing for years. Because you said it, it opened my eyes and because you said it, now I'm willing to listen.' " — on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 07 of 12 On the Power of Introspection Jada Pinkett Smith. "When you've walked through the darkness of your own heart and mind ... there is no shadow you fear." — on Twitter 08 of 12 On Apologizing to Daughter Willow for Not Allowing Her to Express Sadness as a Child Greg Allen/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock "I was like, oh snap, I need to apologize for having denied [Willow] a certain amount of closeness. Not allowing her to have her vulnerability at certain points of her life because I was afraid of my own. And I wanted to acknowledge that." — on Red Table Talk 09 of 12 On Self Love James Devaney/GC "The ego will never fail to strangle the love out of one's heart if we allow it to take center stage in our relationships. Transferring our trust to our hearts from our egos is a painful process in learning HOW to love. BUT… through it all… when we finally get to the place where we can give and receive love in its most pure state… ego free… it is only ever… beauty." — on Instagram 10 of 12 On Love as a Superpower Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images. "I've always believed a woman's superpower is how deep she can love, you know? And one of the things growing up in Baltimore, I grew up around a lot of Black women that didn't have, necessarily, resources to give, right? But they had their strength and they had their love to offer." — on Red Table Talk 11 of 12 On Rebuilding Her Marriage HOLLYWOOD, CA - OCTOBER 06: Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith arrive at Paramount Pictures' Premiere Of "Gemini Man" on October 6, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic). Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic "I am kind of a ride-or-die chick. I just knew with the kind of love that Will and I share — which is beyond romantic love — that we could transform our union and figure out how to re-create what we had." — to PEOPLE 12 of 12 On Destigmatizing Sex Exploration for Women Daniel Boczarski/Getty. "I don't think we know, culturally, what women like in regards to sex. Because women have not been allowed to explore in the same way as men." — on Red Table Talk