Jada Pinkett Smith spoke to PEOPLE in depth during a June 29 exclusive interview about her upcoming memoir release and book tour. The actress and talk show host opened up about her memoir as “an adventure, a search for love and self-worth,” as well as what can be expected from the upcoming project.
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She began by telling the outlet that she began writing her memoir, titled Worthy, well before the infamous Oscar slap. She instead began writing her book to tell her story.
“It was like divine advice,” she began. “It was just like, the idea of being willing to take full responsibility for my story, through and through. And doing it with grace and love. For myself and for others.”
“I had so many people encourage me to write a book. But I was believing that my journey was not a worthy journey. But when I saw it on paper — I couldn’t help but look at myself and say, wow. What a life.”
Pinkett Smith explained that she decided to release her book now because of the popularity of her former talk show. She said, “So many people feel because of my talk show, Red Table Talk, that they know my journey. And they really don’t. There’s been so much about my journey that I haven’t really been able to share in a format like RTT.”
The 51-year-old Baltimore native expressed that the book would be a reclamation of her own story amid a lot of rumors floating around her and her family.
“Yeah. I think people have made a lot of assumptions. And you know what? Rightfully so. I have to take ownership of that, in regard to the narrative that I’ve participated in, the falsehoods about myself. In the book, I really explain all of that extensively as part of my reclamation journey. I think a lot of people, not even just women, but a lot of us lose ourselves in narratives that are not necessarily or completely forthright.”
She added, “Well, here’s the thing. You escape the blame when you know that it’s not your blame. Right? When there’s a misunderstanding. And when you know the truth, there’s no self-judgment. And if you have no self-judgment, then the judgment of others can’t penetrate. In the book, people will see that I have to be very accountable for the misunderstandings that are floating. But ultimately, I hope the book enhances someone’s perspective of their own life. That is my greatest hope.”
She told the outlet that she would be discussing everything in her memoir and wouldn’t be holding back because of haters who didn’t want to read it. “Well, they don’t need to know. And this is not a book for them. Right? That’s the beauty of it. It just so happens that there are some moments that a lot of people are aware of that I’ll be able to break down in regards to that self-reclamation. For those who are not interested, the beauty is they don’t have to get the book. But for those who are, the book will be available,” She said.
