Jada Pinkett Smith Opens Up About Moment Daughter Willow, 17, Revealed She Was Cutting Herself

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about how she reacted to her daughter Willow's stunning revelation that she began "cutting" herself when she was younger

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about daughter Willow‘s stunning revelation that she began “cutting” herself when she was younger.

The actress, 47, spoke out about the moment while speaking with the hosts of The MOMS podcast, Denise Albert and Melissa Musen Gerstein, at the Wheelhouse in New York City on Tuesday for the launch of Red Table Talk‘s return on Facebook Watch where she was introduced to mom business owners and entrepreneurs.

Pinkett Smith — who was accompanied by her mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones — revealed she and Willow, 17, had “talked” about the moment after the teenager admitted on Red Table Talk she had been self-harming after achieving success with her 2010 single “Whip My Hair.”

“I wanted to make sure she was okay,” Pinkett Smith said. “We went through what happened and in the moment I realized as a mother you also have to give your children space to deal with their own shadow.”

“There’s lots of things that my mother didn’t know about me that she’s just finding out about me,” she added. “Our kids don’t want to burden us.”

Jonathan Breton / The MOMS

The Girls Trip star said she chose to pay attention to the positive things that came from Willow’s revelation.

“I focused more on how she got herself out versus what got her there,” she said. “I was most proud about that she could share it in the way she did, which let me know she had come through in a major way that she could put it on the table like that.”

“I wanted to focus on what [it was] that got her through,” the actress explained. “I really talked to her about her powering side of her journey and give her all the praise in the world for that part instead of focusing on, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?'”

Willow spoke about the dark period in her life in May, describing that moment as a “gray area of ‘Who am I? Do I have a purpose? Is there anything I can do besides this?’”

Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty

Once she began promoting “Whip My Hair,” the teenager said she felt pressure to finish her album.

“And I was like, I’m not gonna do that. And after all of that kinda settled down and it was like a kind of lull, I was just listening to a lot of dark music,” Willow said. “It was just so crazy and I was plunged into this black hole, and I was cutting myself.”

“I mean, you can’t even see it but there’s still a little something there,” she added while speaking about the slight mark on her wrist. “But like, totally lost my sanity for a moment there. I never talk about it because it was such a short weird point in my life. But you have to pull yourself out of it.”

Red Table Talk airs Mondays on Facebook Watch.