Black Celebs Open About Mental Health: Mental Health Awareness 2024

By greatbritton

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Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 94th Annual Academy Awards on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 94th Annual Academy Awards on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California.
Photo: David Livingston (Getty Images)

I know, I know. But before you go rolling your eyes or brushing this at times controversial couple off, you should know that both Will and Jada have been increasingly open about their respective mental health journeys over the years.

In fact, last fall, the King Richard star shared that during the making of his six-part docuseries Best Shape of My Life, which was being filmed around the same time as he was penning his bestselling memoir Will, he was at such a low point in his life that he contemplated suicide.

“When I started this show, I thought I was getting into the best shape of my life physically, but mentally, I was somewhere else. I ended up discovering a whole lot of hidden things about myself,” Smith said per Billboard.

He later added, “What you’ve come to understand as Will Smith—the alien-annihilating MC, bigger-than-life movie star—is largely a construction. A carefully crafted and honed character designed to protect myself. To hide myself from the world.”

Likewise, his wife Jada also detailed instances growing up where she dealt with anxiety, “mental health breakdowns,” and even suicidal thoughts in her early 20s.

“I had gotten to L.A. and gotten a certain amount of success and realized that that wasn’t the answer…that that wasn’t what was going to make everything OK. Actually, it made things worse. And I became extremely suicidal and I had a complete emotional collapse,” she explained in a 2020 episode of Red Table Talk according to Essence.

Thankfully for the longstanding couple, they’ve both been able to work on their issues and continue to seek the resources necessary for true growth and healing.

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