Life was hard for Jaden Smith after his parents staged an intervention for him on Red Table Talk, and aired his health problems to the world. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith believed their 21-year-old son was at an unhealthy weight after going vegetarian, and confronted him about it on their Facebook show in September. Three months later, Jaden spoke out about his feelings for the first time, calmly calling his parents out for what they did. “After the last episode, I walk in the street and people are like, ‘Oh my god! Are you sick? Can I pick you up? Could I get you some water?’ Come up to me like, ‘You can have my food, man,’” Jaden explained on the December 16 episode of Red Table Talk. “I’m here eating too. I’m good, I’m fine.”
During the September episode, the Men in Black actor, 51, and Gotham actress, 48, expressed concern for their son after he restricted his diet, calling him “unrecognizable” after losing weight. “He was wasting away. He just looked drained, he was just depleted, he wasn’t getting the nutrients,” Jada said of Jaden. “He had the dark circles under his eyes, there was even a little grayness to his skin. We got really nervous,” Will added. The December episode centered around the whole family — Jada, Will, Jaden, and his siblings, Willow Smith, 19, and Trey Smith, 27 — getting health tests and sharing the results live. They invited Dr. Mark Hyman on to give his expert opinion.
Dr. Hyman told the family that the “ICON” rapper’s actually doing just fine, and there’s nothing to worry about. His nutritional deficiencies are actually due to Jaden having a sensitive stomach, which can be corrected easily. “When you fix your stomach, your diet expands, you take a few supplements, everything’s back to normal. You’re gonna rock the world,” he told a happy Jaden.
The Smith family never holds back on Red Table Talk. Just this year, Jada had T.I. on to talk about “hymengate,” and brought Jordyn Woods to the house for her first interview after kissing Tristan Thompson. Red Table Talk airs Mondays at noon on Facebook.